Red, green, blue, yellow, white.. All the bright bold and
beautiful colors decorate their houses. The bee-houses. Each bee colony has its
own brightly colored box in the house. As
we drive around the beautiful Slovenian countryside, we see these colorful boxes
cheering up the green-yellow fields drenched in golden sun. Every time they make
my mood colorful and I wish to own one. Because these houses are bright,
colorful and happy. Because it is about the buzzing bees. All these simply make
me happy and smiling. We call them ‘Maya’ houses, from the Maya bee cartoon.
Blaž’s aunt Mojca lives in a very beautiful place. The house
has a big garden with all sorts of fruits and vegetable plants. There is a
small lily pool with fishes. Flowers blooming here and there add to the colors.
There are no houses for meters around with only corn and wheat fields
surrounding the place. And it is always so warm and friendly there. Blaž and I
like to visit them. And as we went there for the weekend a while ago, there was
another attraction added to the list. Uncle Janez is very interested in
beekeeping and even used to have bee colonies. And now again he got
enthusiastic and got a bee house in the garden!!! We were ecstatic. Specially
me :)
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| The bee-house |
In the soft yellow light of the morning, the bee-house was
shinning bright and buzzing with the bees. They were going in and out, their
usual busy self. Slovenia has one of the calmest honeybees in Europe. And anyway, with this
air of highly professional attitude, they just meant business with no time for
anything else unless they are threatened. So bravely, I stepped ahead closer to
the house without giving any thoughts to the stings.
On that warm early summer morning, the beehive was thus
abuzz. They danced to the nearby fields, their wings creating music, visiting
flowers and collecting honey. I paid a bit more attention to the bees coming
back on the landing of the hive with their load of pollen. They brought home
two little bags of pollens on their legs. The sight was so amusing and I was
all smiling to myself drawing the strangest analogy. I could not help but
remember my dad on Sunday mornings returning home from the local market with
two bags full of fresh produces and glistening silver fishes. The bees looked the
same to me! They returned home buzzing with little loads of pollens in
different colors. From bright golden yellow, to sunny red, to different shades
of browns, the pollens told the stories of their flights, the flowers they had
visited. Later when I tasted the harvested bee pollens, I could recognize the
slight hint of difference in taste among the pollen balls of different colors.
Later in the day, uncle Janez told us the fascinating tale
of the bee household. He was about to reveal in front of us the inner
sanctuaries of the busy beehive. But not before I covered myself with the
protective clothing and Blaž amused himself taking pictures of me. As an
additional precaution, some mushroom smoke was used to numb the defensive
reactions of the bees. The back doors of the beehive then opened, welcoming us
to the meticulous world of bees.
Hundreds of bees covered each vertical honeycomb frame, busy
with their daily activities. Some were building the cells, others were cleaning
them, some were tending the larvae, and another group was preparing the
nectar. The nectar was in different stages of its preparation. While some cells
were holding the balls of pollen fresh from the field, others were glistening
with the fresh viscous honey. The crystal shimmer of the honey tempted me. I
could not help but dip my little finger in a cell and steal a droplet of
sweetness. The sealed brooding cells nestled the eggs and larvae. We were
trying to find the queen. With the worker bees always surrounding her, feeding
her, and tending to the freshly laid eggs, she was difficult to find. Only after
searching through many a frames we found her royal highness, surrounded by her
courtiers, busy expanding her kingdom.
Though so obvious, I had never imagined bees drinking water.
And my surprise knew no bound when Blaž showed me several bees at the edge of
the lily pool. They were drinking water, their bodies vibrating in rhythm with
every sip. Uncle Janez called us. He was about to demonstrate how the honeycomb
base sheet is framed. Blaž of course had to count the approximate number of
cells on each surface of the sheet. Does he love playing with numbers and
calculating! I was more amazed at the simplicity of all the devices used in
beekeeping. Almost archaic in look but most smart and practical in concept. Moreover,
uncle Janez, so good with his hands, had made almost everything on his own!
Our whole day passed engrossed in the world of bees. As we
enthusiastically observed those buzzing creatures, uncle Janez passed on
tit-bits of intriguing information. In the warm rays of the late afternoon sun,
we observed a little swarm of bees gathered in front of the bee-house. They
seemed to fly at same positions, a few feet away but facing the house. ‘The
young bees are having their orientation flight to recognize and remember the
location of their hive. They are preparing before they go on their maiden
flight tomorrow’, explained uncle Janez. He further clarified how the bees
recognize their hive location with respect to the surroundings. The bright
colors of the house have nothing much to do with it and are only for the
aesthetic pleasure of the beekeeper. Well, of course, now that he mentioned it
makes more sense. And here I thought bees recognize their hives with colors!
‘Mine is red, the neighbor lives in the yellow one!’
The eager and enthusiastic explanation and the fascinating
buzzing world kept us captivated over that weekend. And happiest I was when
last week uncle Janez invited us for another ‘bee lesson’, extracting the
honey. Eagerly we went last Sunday, even though the weather was not the best
for honey extraction, to enjoy another day amidst the buzz. The nearby
cornfields were in bloom making the pollen bundles white this time.
With no hopes for the weather becoming any sunnier, after lunch,
uncle Janez proposed to get down to the act. He decided to extract honey from
six frames where the bees were already sealing the cells and demonstrate us the
process. And I was like ‘I will do, I will do’ at each step.
The honey is extracted with centrifugal force using a big
hand-spun centrifuge. We were working in the shed, hidden, so that the bees do
not come smelling their honey. The first step was uncapping the cells using a
fork. I was already getting excited as the honey almost oozed out while I was
uncapping. How can one wait to taste that glistening sweetness! ‘Can I chew
these wax?’, I eagerly asked pointing to the tiny bits of wax coated with honey
resulting from the uncapping. ‘Sure’, said aunt Mojca explaining how even that
particular wax is also healthy. ‘Blaž you must must try this’, my voice was with
earnest excitement. The frames were properly placed within the centrifuge and I
started spinning. First slowly, and then fast. The glittery droplets covered
the centrifuge wall. And then it slowly dripped down. A bucket collected the
rich golden goodness. An alluring sweet smell filled the air.
After a while, my ‘I will do’ enthusiasm diminished. Ah, it
does need quite a lot of effort! My tired hands rested a bit as Matic took over
the handle. However, in a while, I was back to the ‘I will do, I will do’
eagerness. Blaž all the while was busy taking pictures and making small videos,
‘of your happy smiling face’. ‘Now continue giving that cute smile and look at
the camera’, he said. A quick look and I was back again engrossed in the honey.
We extracted 1.5 liters that filled two jars!! The little bubbles and the rich
dark golden of the honey mesmerized me. The bitter sweetness of the chestnut
honey was blissful. ‘This is the freshest honey I ever had in my whole big
life’ was my enthusiastic exclamation! ‘Everything is so perfect’ I chirped
happily, ‘we just need to label the jars to make it complete’. And uncle Janez happily
prepared the labels. It has a picture of a cute honeybee with a jar of honey.
It even says who extracted the honey :)
Now, every day, I indulge myself in a spoon of this golden
sweetness. Or two spoons. Sometimes I have a few of the bee pollens, ‘Maya
pikicas’ as Blaž calls them.
