A bee story

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 :)

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.