Posted by Farmer Bill

Had a wonderful opportunity yesterday morning (Monday) to learn first hand about beekeeping! Our close friends and neighbors Linda & Sonny Jobe invited Paula and me to help them tend to their bees. Sonny very graciously let me wear his Bee Keepers Suit (helped to settle my nerves, this being my first time to be this close to a large swarm of bees). When I was a very young child living in the country just south of Boston Massachusetts, while playing follow the leader with my sisters and my brother, I was the last in line (being the youngest – smallest) and as we ran through the woods a branch that was pulled back by my brother as he ran past hit me in the face causing my eyes to water. Stumbling around crying and rubbing my eyes, I walked into a wasp nest and was severely stung. Rushed to the doctor’s office, the doctor removed in excess of one hundred stingers from my swelled up body, but I digress.

I was given a quick lesson by Sonny as how to use the smoking can to smoke the bees to help keep them calm, and we headed to the hive. As Sonny began to take the hive apart the buzzing of the bees in the hive escalated to a level almost reminiscent of the choppers in Viet Nam, well I might be exaggerating just a bit. Suffice it to say, the buzz got much more intense, sounding louder than four of Santa’s Elves engraving special nametags for especially good children! Sonny inspected many of the honeycombs and removed several loaded with honey for the harvest, leaving enough he believed to feed the bees through the winter. Linda and Paula quickly moved them away from the hive to keep the bees from swarming the removed honeycombs. Quite an experience!

Sitting on their porch drinking a freshly brewed cup of perked coffee after removing Sonny’s suit (which by the way made me look quite thin – LOL), I began to think, we could have a hive or two next year to help round out our farm….

Food for thought! And Biscuits…….

Thank you Sonny & Linda for a great learning experience!

Bill putting on Sonny’s suit

Almost ready

Opening the hive

Removing a honeycomb screen

Installing a new honeycomb screen

Sorry! No pictures of the coffee drinking….   LOL