My Love-Hate Relationship with Bees…

April 2016: First spring with honeybees!

I can’t call myself a beekeeper. My husband, Andy, is the beekeeper. Even though he hadn’t kept his own bees for almost 20 years he jumped right back in last spring by ordering fifteen packages of bees. I knew exactly ZERO about bees and really didn’t even like honey unless it was paired with peanut butter and just-out-of-the-oven buns. My sister reminded me that I was the child/teen/ok… adult who would run away “screaming with arms flapping” when a bee came anywhere near me. I thought a lot about the pain and suffering associated with The Wasp Sting of 2015.

But we were already “in” so I began to prepare myself by purchasing nearly $200.00 worth of educational reading material. Andy complained that I was going overboard and that I should trust that he knew what he was doing. I kept reading and telling Andy things that he apparently already knew. And I kept working on convincing myself that honeybees are much “tamer” than wasps and not nearly as creepy as other flying insects like spruce beetles. Plus, we would be helping to combat the dwindling number of the honey bees while increasing pollination in our greenhouse and garden.

Our bees arrived in mid-April. I had no idea what to expect from “package bees” so Andy took me to the shop where he had 15 big cardboard tubes with long vented caps. It was too windy to put them into the awaiting bee boxes so he would feed them by spraying the caps with a sugar syrup mixture. Thousands of VERY CREEPY little insect legs would crawl over the screens as they lapped up the syrup. Later, I put on my full protective gear which included a shirt, hoodie and two layers of pants under my bee suit, bee gloves, and rubber boots with the pant legs tucked in. I sucked it up and helped. There are no photos because that would have required me to expose my bare skin in the vicinity of the hives.

For weeks afterwards, I would “suit up” and go out to watch Andy check the bees. It was very interesting to watch them build the wax combs that the queen would use to lay eggs and that the workers would later use to produce and store honey. All summer, the bees went about their business. We kept ten hives near our greenhouse and the bees never bothered me. Sometimes I would get brave and go near the hives without full protective gear. Only once did Andy have to rescue me after I got too close and a bee got stuck in the hair on top of my head! He lamented that it was not fair that I survived a whole season without a single bee sting.

It is our second season.

I let down my guard and was stung twice in one evening. Afterward, I nearly caused my daughter to drive off the highway as I panicked about a bee riding home on me from the bee yard. Even though bee stings do not hurt as bad as I thought they would, I’m still afraid of bees. I don’t run away screaming and flapping my arms anymore though, so there is slight improvement.

I’ve come to appreciate the benefits of raw honey. Andy was right that a spoonful of honey works better than cough syrup and soothes a sore throat. Raw honey has a lot of healing properties and health benefits —to learn more, check out this slideshow from Dr. Oz.

I’ve discovered Pinterest! I have had some successes and some failures. The most successful product has been the beeswax-based lip balms that have been a hit at the Farmers Market. I’ve also experimented with quite a few recipes and will post some of my favorites on this blog!

I don’t think that I will ever be able to call myself a beekeeper. But I’m learning a lot and will keep working on my love-hate relationship with bees!

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