Bee Happy

My husband has a new hobby. He has adopted a bee family, and added a hive in the field behind our "Food Forrest".  I know little nada about bees, and was a bit worried when he didn't seem to either, as we were building and painting the hive (it came in a million little pieces!).  And I wasn't all that enthusiastic about the idea of it.

 But he quickly learned and has been talking to beekeeping friends, as well as reading up on the subject, and I am learning more about it from listening to him.  

Not my hobby, so I am NOT going to read up on it.  But I will enjoy the goods from the hive.

Apparently, you don't get honey for a while, you need to let the little buzzers build up enough for themselves before you can have any.  

Seems fair.

But, they have to be checked up on, and if they are building combs in spots that aren't in the right locations, those need to be cleared away.  Since our new pets got confused and built an extra piece, we got to harvest that bit.

Somehow or another (like I said, I'm not going to get into the details, NOT my hobby) the honey we get to harvest is separate, and doesn't have bee eggs or parts in it.  This chunk was in an area that did contain those.  Also, it held little honey so far.  It wasn't edible, but the wax was good to use to make beauty products.

I double wrapped it in cheese cloth, submerged it in water, and let it simmer as the wax melted out. Then, squeezed out the cheesecloth to get as much beeswax as I could, let it cool, and scooped out the wax into a bowl.  To that, I added melted coconut oil and a couple drops of lavender oil, and whisked it all together.

Oh my, it made the best, most creamy, body butter ever!  It was soooo easy to do, too.

Now, I can't say that I did it correctly, or followed a recipe, but I like what I got out of it. I'd looked online for recipes and directions and all were too complicated and even involved scales.  No way.  So I winged it (fitting for dealing with the produce from flying creatures) and was happy with the results.  

My husband is loving the new family members, and has made himself a little patio with seating to watch them buzz in and out of their home.  I'm loving the beeswax cream that I made.  And I have a feeling that our fruit trees and berry bushes will benefit too.  So, I guess I'm happy that we invited them to come live with us after all.

 

Comments

[Regina Brodbeck]

🐝🐝❤️

[Gayla Pappenfoht]

Interesting folks, bees... I have a huge colony in a hollow maple, and a friend is coming to take them home with him.

[jeanie]

For "NOT my hobby," I think you might be getting into this! Doing my family history research I discovered my great grandmother was a beekeeper and in some old Bee Journal in the 1800s. Who knew?