here is the end result of this story
in early 2015 i saw that this bee lady was going to do
a talk about honeybees at my favorite garden nursery
so off i went
with notebook in hand
i took lots of notes that day and got a lot of handouts
i told my wife she when i got home
i am ready to to do this now
so
i went to this bee ladys classes
two of them
from early beginners to beginners classes
then
i went to the gurus class
les crowder the guru of topbar hives
since thats the one i settled on
since when i got older i didnt want to have to lift heavy
bee boxes
now we live 45 miles from the monthly bee meetings
so
as we took care of our beehive
i used books and you tube videos to guide me through
the first year
occasionally sourcing a beekeeper whenever i could
what i found out was
the bees really take care of themselves
you sort of leave them alone
just
occasionally take a peek at things to make sure nothing
bad is going on
i thought
you know bees have been taking care of themselves
without help for thousands of years
without mankinds intervention
so this week it was time to do our first honey harvest
of our topbar hive
which reveals a plexiglass window
there were at least what looked like 7 or so honeycombs
looking laden with honey
so
i bundled up my wife she in her short suit
well she didnt tighten things up around the edges
like she should have
paid the price she did
once on the arm
which now takes up most of her upper arms with redness
and swelling
whatcha learn i said
but the one that got inside her bee hood
between the screen and her face
was the worse
i had to make a decision
let her get zapped on the cheek or nose or lips
or
sacrifice that particular guard bee
she the honeybee was going to die either way
if they sting you they die doing it
i sure my wife she appreciated by stream of thought on this
now
i hate to lose bees
so i contemplated for awhile
too long my wife she said in an unfriendly tone
so
that guard bee is no longer with us
my plan i thought
was to gently look at the last 3 combs
to make sure the combs were all capped with honey
to make sure there was plenty left for the bees
you know they worked so hard for this honey
its a relationship we have
i keep an eye on things
they pay me with some honey
so i suited up like looking like a spaceman
smoked them real good
this tends to calm them down
they think
i think
oh no someone is attacking us and stealing our honey
so they go into doing whatever they can to save their honey
sucking it up themselves
attacking the intruders like dive bombers
they only had one kill though
it was my wife shes upper arm
no repeating here what she said though
i gently lifted the first honeycomb
kerplumk it went into the bottom of the hive
a oozing glob of honey and bees
only one thing to do
just grab what you can and put it in the bucket
then i gently lifted another
kerplunk again
this isnt good i said
so after a long time in the heat of the day
oh wait that was my problem the heat of the day
thats why the kerplunking happened of the honeycombs
they were like
melting
generally
it was my plan
to gently lift the honeycomb
brush off the bees
trim the comb into the bucket
replace the guide bar back in the hive
put the cover back on the hive
a quart of honey would then be extracted
we got
a large container of broken oozing honey
mixed in with lots of our bees
trying to save the honey
my wife she got a bee sting that looks like it will stay with her
for awhile
we about got heat stroke
we were both gassed when we mange to get all the bees
brushed off our suits
to get inside where it was cool
so
here is the harvest
using quart jars and cheese cloth and duct tape
to let the honey ooze from the top jar
down to the lower one
like the sands of time
in summary
was it worth
my wife she said yes as she poured honey on her yogurt
and blueberries and mixed nuts this morning
except of course for that missile attack
and
the loss of bee lives
next time
since we are learning by the seat of our plants
we hope to be sting free
and
to have no loss of bee lives with our next harvest
dang
this honey tastes so good
the country n organic wildflower native plant honey
1 gallon of it
the organicgreen doctor
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