After last week’s teaser, I think you know the answer to that question. We decided To Bee. It was an easy decision really. There is no better way to procrastinate on the projects that you haven’t finished than by starting another one. And, for Kim, bees are a wonderful memory of her grandfather. She remembers him donning his bee suit, firing up his bee smoker, and checking his hives on Louisiana Avenue in Seminole Heights.
It’s been a fun project so far. Just the other evening, I was sitting in our new bee area, which has become our favorite place to sit now in both the mornings and evenings, just watching the bees at work. This evening, the chairs were in a different spot than usual; Abby moved them to get them out of the sun, and I think I was in the worker bee’s pollen path. For the most part when we are out near the hive, the bees don’t pay any attention to us. But this particular evening, one very curious bee was distressed at where I was sitting. And she let me know it, buzzing around my head over and over again. Bees can apparently smell fear in the form of pheromones, so I sat as calmly as I could, smiling broadly and wondering if they can also smell joy!
Fortunately, investigation seemed to be the only thing on this little aviator’s mind. I tried to tell her I am not a great source of pollen, but I don’t quite speak bee yet. She figured it out and eventually went back to her more plentiful pollen sources.
We are only about two weeks into our great bee adventure, and it has already been lots of fun and a great learning experience for all of us. This past Sunday, we opened the hive for the first time since we got our starter bee frames (in the bee world that is called a nuc, pronounced nuke) and upon this first investigation, everything appeared as it should bee. Our queen, an Italian Blond named Bee-atrice, has been busy laying thousands of new eggs, and in turn those eggs are hatching into larvae, going into their pupa stage, and even hatching out new workers. We spotted the bits of pollen that the bees have collected and made into bee bread and even a few hexagons filled with delicious-looking honey. It will be some time before we get our first honey taste and harvest, but the girls are already busy (as bees) creating logos and scheming how to market Bokor-Bees honey (or Bo-Kerby’s honey, we haven’t quite settled on the name).
The garden is always a place to learn new things, and in two weeks I’ve learned way more about bees than I ever knew. It is so interesting to watch their hive-mind behavior in action. We can’t wait to keep sharing our bee journey with you.
P.S. Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate Earth Day with us this past Saturday. I had a great time talking about Florida Native plants and showing you our Homegrown National Park®. Remember Earth Day may only be one day out of the year, but as gardeners we know that we are all responsible for being positive stewards of the earth. So get out in those gardens, plant native, plant for pollinators, and plant to make the earth a better place.
