Connecting with Bees: A Gentle Approach to Bee Handling!

Every so often I come across bees so sweet and kind that I promised myself a long time ago that I would take off my suit and gloves and handle them with my fingers. Sort of penance for how rough I am with bees in general, I'm in business after all. Bees sting you, and bee suits are hot. All that creates impatience and stress. And I feel bad when my stress brings about bee mortality. So when I come across nice bees I just stop what I'm doing and do my little bee meditation. A way of saying thanks to God and to the bees for paying my bills.

This is one of those days. I knew right away these bees were going to be kind. It took me a while to find them because they were so docile. Then I was able to pull each comb out by hand. After that I reached my bare hand into a piles of bees and felt The rush of waiting for the bees to react violently. They never did and I scooped them up in my fingers and drop them in the box with the comb. I work with bees everyday and trust me there's some some fear to push past here. as soon as the bees got into the box they happily stuck their little boodies in the air and began to fan their wings and air condition the box, the sign they are accepting it as home. Joyous

I did get stung. Three times. But mostly from just being careless. it's been a long time since I've seen bees like these. I imagine how many thousands of years they go back to when monks in the middle ages loved on them and tamed them and made their Mead wine. Hundreds of years later they would be moved to North America and to of this encounter with me. right here in Florida. Honey bees are not native to North America.

Please notice my new styrofoam catcher box, and a little mesh wire grappler I'm experimenting with to hold wild honeycomb in a hive box. Both of these experiments worked fairly well and will lead to even better things. notice the bottle of Honey water I sprayed on the bees to calm them down. A bee will gather about a quarter teaspoon of Honey nectar in its lifetime so when you spray it with honey water it's like heroin.And the nice picture of the lady who hired me. An old hippie like me. Who is so excited to save the bees. I gave her some honey.

I love my job.

Save Bees and Bee Blessed!