In Love with Bees

I just had one of the coolest experiences of my life. I have an old family friend who happens to be a beekeeper and she let me come over and learn about bees. She first showed me pictures, gave me some general information and told me about what to expect when we go into the hive. Then I got to put on a full body bee suit. It was awesome and I wish I had gotten a picture. I'm sure I looked so cool.

We headed out to one of her hives and she took me through the process of opening up the hive and removing frames. We examined each frame so I got to see cells that held honey, some that had pollen and some that had baby bees in them. I even got to see a brand new baby bee, all cute and fuzzy, chewing it's way out of it's cell, essentially being born. The whole while I had bees flying all around me and crawling over me. A couple of bees even managed to get inside my bee suit and crawl on my face.

After watching tons of worker bees and seeing a drone we had to pack things back up because it was raining. It was all just totally awesome. The bees are just so cute and everywhere. It was so cool to see the combs that they make and fill with honey and the little babies. It was quite exhilarating and I am definitely hungry for more of it. My friend promised that the next time she does anything with her hive or harvest honey that she'll let me know. She also told me of a beginner bee class that they have at a local nature center every year, which I will most surely check out.

I did get stung once on the arm but it really wasn't so bad. In fact I almost feel like I would have been disappointed if I hadn't been stung. It's sort of like a battle scar, proof of my exploits.

I can't wait until I can do that again! I just can't express how exciting it all was!