Six eager women (Marie, Carrie, Tina, Paula, SandyO, and Janet) met in a South Austin neighborhood to meet with Tara Chapman of Two Hives Honey. We had a brief introduction to honeybee behavior and beekeeping, then it was time to don our bee suits. We all wore the special hood you have seen that zips all the way around to keep errant bees at bay. Two of us had hoods with a half-length jacket, and the rest wore full long-sleeve jackets. Of course, we all wore gloves that go all the way up the arm with elastic at the ends.
Many of you were at the last meeting when Tara explained all the ins and outs of bees, such as there are only 3 classes of bees: the queen (who lays about 1,000 eggs a day!); the drones (males, whose only function is to breed with the queen); and female workers (who make up 90% of the hive and do all other functions including foraging, nursery duties, and managing the nectar and pollen). Think of a beehive as one body, and each bee as a cellular unit making up the body. Everything they do is for the good of the hive. It takes about a million flowers to provide enough pollen for a pound of honey. One bee will make about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey.
Tara used a “smoker” to calm the bees down as she removed the top of a hive and pulled out frames of bees for us to view and hold. We could see the difference between the larger drones and the worker bees, but we did not see the queen. We saw brood (eggs and larva in their cells), with honey, along with bees carrying pollen on their hind legs.
We all were utterly fascinated by the tour. Each one of us had a taste of honey straight from the hive – it was delicious! It’s obvious Tara is very passionate about beekeeping and has a wealth of knowledge to share in her tours and classes. She reminded us that bees need flowering plants throughout the year, not just in the summer, and she gave us a packet of wildflower seeds to plant. We felt very fortunate to learn so much and vowed to never take for granted all the hard work that goes into making honey.
Afterwards, we had an excellent brunch at Austin Java to complete the morning. ‘Til next time!
Janet
Don’t forget – Bee friendly!
