On a warm, summer day, when a honeybee hive is full, you can smell its rich, fluvial aroma. Then, it is time for the worker bees to swarm after the queen for she is ready to leave her nest and mate. What a musical, humming sound they make as they swarm after her high in the sky. When this process is finished, the queen returns to the hive to lay her eggs. She is fed and cared for but her mate must die. The worker bees go back to their task of gathering nectar, which they convert into honey and return to the hive. It was on one of these days, that my beekeeper friend, Paul, invited me to join him on a dangerous adventure I will never forget.

In his greenhouse, Paul had three home- made beehives, one of which, was full of honey and ready to harvest. The wooden-framed trays, laden with honey, needed to be removed from the hive and exchanged for new empty ones so that the worker bees could fill them with honey converted from pollen, gathered eucalyptus trees which surrounded his house. These rectangle man-made wooden frames, had a series of wires, spaced about two inches apart, which ran horizontally from one side to the other. Between these wires was a sheet of small, hexagon wax cells, identical to those that bees make when they build their hive in a tree.

1

A bee keeper’s garb of protective clothing, consists of pants and a long sleeved shirt made of very heavy material, tall, rubber boots up to the knees, a wire mask for the face with a wide-brimmed hat and heavy duty gloves. Also needed, is a bellows, a tall, metal can with a handle. This is filled with smoldering rags, which when activated, is used to pump out smoke which drives the bees away from the frame and out of the hive. Then, the full trays of honey can be carefully removed without injury to the bees, making room for new, empty trays, enabling these magnificent, hymenopterous insects to carry on their work of making and storing their precious, liquid gold.

My garb for helping to harvest honey, was not as elaborate as Paul’s, but did require slacks, a long-sleeved blouse, garden gloves, wide-brimmed hat and a lot of courage. I was to follow Paul to the hives and when he extracted a frame, take it and run like hell to the kitchen. There, I placed one sticky frame after the other on newspapers, returning each time to get another frame from the hive. Bees can be very persistent. I felt like a bear must feel when he’s pursued by bees after raiding a hive in the woods.

Sometimes, bees got into the kitchen, as the door was left open, but I was instructed not to worry – we would take care of that later. I got stung on a few occasions but was told to just keep on the move. I discovered that when a bee gets caught in your hair and screams at you, heavy-duty gloves won’t help him escape. Paul got stung a few times, even with his super protective clothing which always made me laugh; he looked like someone who had just stepped out of a spaceship But Paul had a way with his bees. He explained that they considered him a friend and were happy to have him bring new frames with fresh wax cells, where they could distribute their newly made honey.

2

After the hive was cleaned out and honey collected, the hard part was over but there was lots more to do. The honey needed to be removed from the frames. This was done by cutting chunks of it away from the wires with a knife. Prior to harvesting, we had sterilized large and smaller sized glass jars to store the honey in. The unbroken sections of honey comb were stored in the larger jars while the smaller broken pieces were put in kettles to break up and kneed with our hands before the straining process began. Let me tell you, that that Eucalyptus honey was finger-lickin’ good and chewing on honey comb was heaven!

Next, the honey chunks were strained through large squares of cheesecloth doubled and knotted onto broomsticks supported on chairs. The honey bags were left to drip all day and night, (sometimes longer) dripping into big kettles set on newspapers below. Even with all these precautions, there was always a sticky floor to mop.

When the honey stopped dripping and was completely emptied from the bags, it was poured from the kettles into the sterilized jars and sealed with seranwrap before screwing on the lids. Then the jars were taken to the basement for storage.

Now, the left over wax was boiled and strained for honey water, which we drank for breakfast, as you would tea of coffee. The wax was then poured into round molds, which were used for making candles or exchanged at the bee store for more new frames. There are many uses for beeswax. I remember my grandmother using a ball of it to slide her thread through when she wanted to make it stronger for hand sewing. The aroma from wax candles is like rare perfume.

3

After the second or third time of harvesting honey, it was an experience I always looked forward to. Honey, found and tested from the tombs of Egypt, is as good as the day it was collected. And so is the honey stored in large containers located on Paul’s property, gathered over sixty years ago and longer.

Copyright © 2007 Mary L. Ports