Bee Keeping

There have proven to be a few benefits to the slower season. One benefit is that I've had more time to spend with my fellow volunteers, as well as more time to devote to projects that interest me. Last Sunday, I was finishing lunch and getting ready to go lay down wood chips in my Thailand garden, when Ivy mentioned that Emily Strobus (another volunteer) was taking her to see the bees. Ivy kindly invited me, and I thought, "Hell, why not?"

We have two hives on the farm, though we've only actively gotten honey from one, and Emily has been their primary caretaker. She knows bees. So, we suited up in bee suits and gloves and bee helmets, lit our smoker, and headed to the hives.

It was bizarre. The minute we took off the top layer, out came the swarm. Hundreds of bees everywhere, crawling all over your arms, buzzing around your head, so that the only sound you hear is, "Bbbbzzzzzz...." Probably the most bizarre part is the lack of fear. It's almost peaceful to be so immersed.

Our mission was to make sure the bees had enough food for winter. So, we took out shelf by shelf ( I don't think thats the right vocab; I forgot) and saw all the honey they had made. Delicious smelling stuff. And all these bees, so busy and hardworking.

After we put the hive in winter order, we decided to check out the other one, which we hadn't been harvesting from because the hive was a little weak. Note: At this point, I had not been stung once. Well, we opened the hive and realized that our smoker had run out. If you don't have smoke, it's a lot harder to keep the bees calm. Well, they got pissed. Emily got stung and had to go off with Ivy, leaving me to put the top back on the hive. Amid the swarm of pissed-off bees, I calmly put the lid back on and then noticed that the buzzing sound was a little louder than normal. I turned my head a little to discover that three bees had gotten inside my net helmet. Calmly, I ran the hell away, flung off my helmet, and tried to not get stung. There was a lot of yelling and flapping of arms. After running halfway across the farm, the last remaining bee stung me on the head. Bastard. I was out there for two hours and didn't get stung until the last two minutes. What's that about?

Even after that, I had a big smile on my face. Bee keeping is cool stuff, and I plan to go to Bee Keeping School with a few other volunteers in the spring.