Bugs, as in insects, but bunny, paid the bills in my family when I was growing up. My grandfather on my father's side, started working with bees as a child. He found bees living in a hollow tree, he learned how to move them into a hive, and how to harvest honey without killing the bees. Later he kept bees in the near in suburbs of Detroit. My father literally grew up with bees in the back yard. The farm I grew up on was bought in major part because the city was trying to expel my grandfather's bees. He bought a farm in the country so he could keep bees in the back yard and no one could stop him. Sometime in the late 50's, my father and grandfather went full scale, at one point having nearly 2,000 colonies. My father took this picture sometime in the late 50's early 60's, this is my grandfather working bees barehanded. The capped section on the frame, is brood, bees in the larval stage. In a couple of weeks those will hatch into worker bees (females - not destined for mating.) Drone, or male larva are larger, queens cells are very elongated. There is probably a queen on there someplace, there is one in every crowd.
Have you ever handled live bees?
No, I have not and do not intend to do so. However, I would love to have a couple of hives. The Animal Control guy saw my chickens which are forbidden in the city and said he did not care I had them. I mentioned I would like bees, and he became very stern, lost his smile, and said absolutely not. It is supposed it is okay since I am highly allergic to stinging things.
ReplyDeleteSorry. Can't even look at the picture. Seriously allergic. I do my best to remain relaxed when I see bees, but pictures like this just do me in. In other words... I have NEVER handled live bees, but a few have handled me and sent me to the hospital.
ReplyDeleteI am in mitchell's camp. queens make life interesting, don't you think? :-)
ReplyDeleteI've handled bees, but not in the way you mean. When I was a kid, we had a neighbor with ice plant growing in her yard. That plant was full of spiders in these tunnel-like webs. You tap the web gently and the spider came out. Bees were also all over that stinkin' plant. We had old wooden clothes pins, the kind with that little opening in the middle. We'd capture the bees in that hole so they weren't squashed. We'd then put them in the webs and watch the spiders feast! I loathe spiders, but that was kind of fun. Bees don't bother me at all and now I feel like a murderess!
ReplyDeleteBeen stung quite a few times, but I'm not allergic.
ReplyDelete:-)
-Andy
I had a teacher that had bees. He let me and a few others handle them. Honey bees are, for the most part, very docile.
ReplyDelete