Bees? Yes, Please!

This past weekend we went to P's parents house by train (because the component that keeps the saddle pole up broke on P's bike, and the bike-parts-stores were all closed). So we spent all weekend in Heist-op-den-Berg. We did the normal lifguard-swimming-training on Saturday evening, but Sunday was the real treat. The neighbors accross the street not only have geese to cut their lawn, but they also have, you guessed it, bees. Two colonies, actually. The bee keeper (imker) father explained he had one, and then it swarmed onto a tree branch nearby and he re-caught them and now has two.

As it so happens, the day in question was 25°C and sunny -- and time for the first check of the bee colonies after winter! Unfortunately, there were only 2 bee suits, and I didn't think to grab my camera in my complete reversion to a 5 year old that gets to play with the bees. I think you can all imagine the moment the father told me I could put on the bee suit, photos probably wouldn't be doing a moment like that justice.

My job as to execute bursts of 'fine rain mist' to make the bees hum go from "HMMMMMMMMMMMMI'MABEEANDYOUOPENDMYNESTBOX!" back to "hmmmmI'mahappybeedoingbeethings" as the father opened the boxes and checked out the colonies.

No one got stung, and there were 2 combs of honey to be taken. We ended the afternoon sitting eating fresh honey and gnawing on fresh wax (it's like chewing gum, except you can't snap it! :D) and listening to stories of the father about the man who taught him about bee-keeping.

Somewhere in the middle of the stories me and P looked at each other and decided we needed to invest in a suit for each of us and look up the nearest local meetings of bee-keepers. I mean, what 60-90 year old man DOESN'T want to spend the afternoon with a 20-something female who isn't scared of bees, right? Right. I'll tackle bee-keeping after tackling becoming a certified 'compost master'. Classes are for 3 weekends in May. Woot! Just in time to figure out what to do with all the greens from the garden we keep needing to cut back!

Oh, and in other news, I think I might be getting even more people to clean for, and Dutch classes are starting up again, so my time for skyping is going to be wonky again. I'll be posting times once I know my schedule.