RAMBLINGS IN THE NIGHT.... Papaw, the Honey Bees, and Me

RAMBLINGS IN THE NIGHT…..Papaw, the Honey Bees, and Me.

            My Papaw Jim raised Honey Bees all my life. And he had me out in amongst the bee hives doing one thing or the other from the time I was old enough to walk. Pap had around 85 stands of bees. They didn’t take much work. But the benefits they offered were worth having them around.

            Now it happened like this. I was in the garden one after noon. I’m not sure what I was hoeing. Probably taters. I was only 9 or 10 at the time. I was hunkered over hoeing, when I raised up and into a swarm of bees. One of the hives had born a new queen and part of the hive left with her. From the looks of it now the hive was originally heading toward my house and the woods behind. But when I raised up they veered off toward Papaws house then on toward Uncle Verlies and Aunt Willa Maes.

            The swarm bypassed Papaws and lit on Uncle Verlies mailbox about 40 feet from Papaws house. I was the only one at home at the time. Pap Jim and Uncle Verley hadn’t gotten home from work yet. Mom was down visiting with Aunt Willa Mae. I have a got idea that they were gossiping, the good Lord only knows about what.

            So I dropped the hoe and went and got a new bee box, and toted it down to Uncle Verlies mailbox. Then ran back up to Paps and got a smoker. I lit an old rag and put it in the smoker. And headed back down. I had helped Pap do this more than once so I knew what to do.

            Did I mention that it was hot and when I was younger and it was hot outside I usually ran around in nothing but a pair of shorts. T-shirts and shoes were optional. So there I was with nothing on but a pair of shorts and flip flops on trying to get this swarm of bees into the bee box. Well Pap had taught me the difference between the queen and the drone or worker bees. Well it didn’t take me long to find the queen. I reached in coaxed the queen onto my hand.

            Now when the queen climbed into my hand the other bees followed suit. So there I am with this young queen bee in my hand. I should point out here that my hand was open so as not to squish the queen.  The other bees were climbing all over my hand and up my arm to the elbow.

            I was just trying to coax the queen out of my hand and into the bee box when Papaw Jim and Uncle Verley drove up on the scene. And about that same time Mom and Aunt Willa Mae came out of the house and onto the front porch. Well Mom takes one look at me and started screaming that I was getting stung to death. I should put in right here that I was not getting stung to death. I was standing there all normal for someone who had about 50,000 bees crawling all over his arm. Papaw told Mom to hush, that I was alright and nothing bad was going to happen to me.

            Papaw stopped the truck in the middle of the road. Uncle Verley and he got out of the truck and walked over to me. I’m standing there looking at Papaw. And Papaw has the biggest grin on his face. He patted Uncle Verley the shoulder. Then he looked at me and said, now be gentle with her and get her into the box. He was saying this while grinning from ear to ear. Now the swarm was crawling over my left arm. I am a lefty so it just seemed natural to pick the queen up with my left hand.

            With my right hand I found the young queen again and let her crawl onto my right fore finger. Then I set her down right in front of the slit that opens up into the bee box. The moment she crawled off my finger the swarm melted off my left arm and followed the queen into the bee box and their new home. Papaw patted me on the back and said well done. Couldn’t have done better myself.

            He asked how I got the bee box down there. I told him that I toted it down. Which was not easy by the way. I weighed maybe 80 lbs. The bee box weighed 10 or 20 lbs, and was bulky. I found the lighter in the shed next to the smoker and old rags. It was simple really. I had seen Papaw do many times.

            Papaw and Uncle Verley set the new bee hive in the bed of Papaws truck and drove it up to where the other hives were set. Then set it up in its new place and that was the end of that.  And I didn’t even get stung. Which is surprising.

            Now once a year if pollen was plentiful we robbed the bee hives to gather the honey hiding there in. The bees weren’t ever happy when we did this. It disrupted their day. But we’d rob them. We’d take the supers and lay them on folded out newspaper, so we wouldn’t get honey all over the floors. Then we would bring in the extractor.

            The honey extractor was this big dark green monstrosity that was circular, and had four slots that the frames set on. Then on top was a crank that we would turn at a fast spin which causes the honey to fly out and on the wall of the extractor then collect at the bottom of the extractor. There was a drain. There was a lever that once pulled up would open the drain and let the honey pour forth. We’d have quart jars waiting for the honey.

            In some of the quart jars we’d put honey comb and others nothing but pure honey. Papaws house would smell so good for weeks after. We ate a lot of honey growing up. We used it in cooking. And we’d sell part of it also.

            I guess I should say here that I have been stung by bees, many times. It was usually because I was running around bare footed and accidently step on a bee while running through the yard.