Tuesday, August 3, 2010

I've got honey, honey!

My bees are decidedly the messiest bunch of animals on the Central Coast. They've built some gorgeously natural looking (translation: disorganized and frenetic) combs in the first super, and are now in the process of glueing the queen excluder to the second super of combs right on top.

Meaning that when I need to get into the hive, I have to pry off the box, break the combs binding it together, and...piss off the bees.

Up until now, my bees have been the gentlest, tamest girls in the world. I've never used my smoker, and I can put my bare hands in and not have a problem. They buzz around happily, creating more comb and checking me out while I sing to them or chat away about whatever's going on. (Note: bees have no hearing apparatus, so this is really for my own benefit.)

I guess if someone came into my house and broke all my hard work apart I'd be angry, too. And yet I'll keep doing this because I get one of the coolest benefits ever.

When I break the comb a little, honey literally pours out. And it's the coolest thing in the world to stick your finger into a warm puddle of sweet goodness and taste it right out of the hive. I don't have enough to bottle just yet, but the experience makes up for that.

1 comment:

  1. That sounds amazing Laura! And, you are very brave...even with all the gear I think I would still be freaked out around all those bees!

    ReplyDelete