Today we were invited by a family from church to come and watch them extract the honey from their hives. Sounded pretty interesting so the girls and I headed over after a long day of soccer. I forgot to take my camera so as far as pictures go I am at the mercy of another family from church that also came to watch, I am hoping they will email the pictures soon. Kelly, the bee-keeper, put his gear on and took us out to show us where the hives are stored in wooden boxes. He lifted the lid and explained the process. He brought out his smoker to help calm the bees, I guess. Using the borrowed camera I crept a little closer, encouraged by Kelly's fearlessness even though I wasn't wearing a special suit, ignoring my general fear of insects that sting I attempted to get some photos up close. Suddenly there was an angry buzzing in my ear. I batted at the sound in a vain attempt to shoo the bee away. Finally I made a run for it. I joined the rest of the on-lookers 10 feet away but we were all in dangerous territory now - I think the bees may have followed me back. Soon all twenty-three of us were batting at angry buzzes in our ears. I told my girls to run but only Aubrey and Christine listened. A pregnant lady got a bee stuck in her hair and began to holler to her husband to get it out, in a rather panicked voice - apparently she has an allergy. Another lady holding her newborn began to panic as she had a bee stuck in her hair as well. I grabbed her baby and ran to get him away from the other bees flying furiously around us. The bees were mad that their honey was missing. The baby was safe and Talia, who continued to stroll along at a leisurely pace amused by the pandemonium that had spontaneously broken out, made it safely too. When we were to the front of the house, far from the bees for the most part, I took a head count. I thought Taylor had been in front of me but now I heard her screaming from behind. Her yells escalated from panic to pain as she took a bee sting right to her eye (actually the eyebrow). She had selflessly gone back to get Talia's flip flops, which had been left behind in the flee, and unfortunately took a sting to the eyebrow before she could retrieve the flip flops (we left for home without them, no one wanted to go back out). All in all the casualty total was 6 stings, one little girl had two the rest were divided evenly, one per family.
The rest of the process was less eventful. We watched Kelly take the honeycombs from the wooden boxes, remove the wax, then place them in a centrifuge. The kids all took turns turning the handle to spin the honey out. The honey was then poured through a strainer (to remove remaining wax and any bee parts - gross!). Then it was ready to eat. This was some of the best honey I have ever tasted. Hopefully pictures will be coming soon!
