Sweet Honey Just Pulled from the Hives
Yesterday afternoon Corky of Ballard Bee Company dropped by to check on his honey bees in our garden. They’re all doing great, and it was actually time to extract a few frames of honey from one of the hives. (The other is still catching up after swarming earlier in the year.) Of course, the bees don’t like it when anyone steals their honey — even if it is Corky who fed them through the winter. They cooperated nicely for a bit, but Corky did get several annoying stings. Honestly, I don’t know how he puts up with it. As I chatted with him while he worked, a few warning bees came after me as well. And, giving in to their herding, I ran from the angry girls. (Yeah, I know. Someday that’s just not going to work.)
Corky kept calling us “the bears”. We steal the bees’ honey just like a raiding bee in the woods. He even told us that he’s aware of studies showing that bees tend to go for the dark colors – think big, bad bears – ahead of lighter colors when they’re on the defense. And, sadly for Corky, they seem to really like to go for his face when they sting – ouch!
Gladly playing my role as honey-stealin’ bear, I did dip my finger into some of the oozing honey on the frames Corky pulled yesterday. Maybe it’s my imagination, but I think it tasted even better fresh out of the hive than it does out of the bottle. There’s a faint flavor of pine (perhaps from the wooden frames?), aromas of waxy pollen, hints of herbs and summery garden flowers, and of course it’s warm!
It’s good to be a bear! (Well, unless you’re Corky-the-bear and you get stung at least three or four times for every frame of honey you extract from the hive.)
