My Day with the Beekeeper

Mother’s Day can be bittersweet for me. I was blessed to spend most of the day yesterday with my family, including my mum, brother, and sis in law, 1/3  and his girl.  It’s hard with 2/3 and 3/3 not being around, but I vowed to plan some fun activities for myself on Mother’s Day to distract myself.

It started out as a normal Sunday Morning, God first and then off to Jefferson Boro, where I grew up. Over the last few years, an old High School Friend of Mine Chris Vario and I have reconnected. Chris has been such a blessing in my life. In more ways than most people know because of Jacob. Semper Fidelis “Always Faithful” is a true statement and Chris was pivotal when my son was struggling in the Marine Corp and I’ll be forever indebted to him for that.

Around 10 years ago Chris took up a rather interesting hobby. One that most people say “REALLY?!?” when I tell them what he does. In addition to a full-time job, Chris is a Bee Keeper. On the 40 acres he grew up on in Jefferson he currently has 10+ active honey bee hives.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I made my way to the Ranch. I was excited, nervous. Especially with a text Saturday night that read “avoid eating bananas before coming…the smell of a banana is similar to the bee’s alarm scent. Also, avoid wearing any perfume products. Bees communicate using pheromones or scents and introducing a strange scent can cause attraction, aggression or confusion.” ?

Right…so the first thing that came to my mind was the little boy in Jerry McGuire that said “Bees and Dogs smell Fear”…but I was so excited for this experience.

When I arrived at the Ranch Chris came down from the hives so that I could get “SUITED UP”. I looked much like the stay puff marshmallow man, but I didn’t care, I had on the real deal gear. He, on the other hand, was admittedly lax with his beekeeper wearings. Jeans, and just the beekeeper hat/jacket and gloves that were supporting a hole that he had to keep tending to. (He was stung a few times while we were up there and didn’t even flinch)

When I arrived, I got to meet a couple of new beekeepers, Frank and Jackie. They inherited 2 hives when they purchased their property (also in Jefferson). They were there to learn as much as they could from Chris.

Let me step back a moment to this morning’s church sermon. Pastor Scott said, “We speak boldly about what we believe deeply”. Chris truly loves and deeply believes in the importance of honey bees. I learned so much about the whole process, and I still have more questions.

We checked each hive to ensure they were producing, and to ensure none of them were on the verge of Swarming. Hive after hive, he’d take the top off and check the hives. I learned the meaning of words like Broad, Queen Excluder, Drones, Nurse bees, bee swarms, royal jelly and so much more. I was like a sponge today. It was truly amazing listening to the amount of knowledge Chris so freely gave to new beekeepers and to me a total curious spectator.

Upon inspection of the 3rd to the last hive we checked, Chris realized that hive was prepping to Swarm. *This is apparent by the peanut shaped comb that forms at the bottom, showing they are growing a new queen* That basically means the bees are prepping a new queen to split a colony. It was truly remarkable to watch Chris quickly get prepared. We had to find the queen of the colony and let me tell you…finding the queen in a healthy colony is like finding a needle in a haystack…especially for this girl who has ZERO experience doing this and is half blind! Miraculously I found her! We were able to remove her and 9 other combs into a new colony. Leaving the existing hive to continue to create a new queen (which is a 21-day cycle). See…so much amazing information!

I can’t even begin to explain to everyone how amazing the experience was for me today. Chris was such a gracious host and patient with my questions. I was truly fascinated by watching the bees. The best part of the whole experience was getting to actually taste the honey! The different flowers and seasons create different flavors of honey. I encourage all of you to check out his website. www.sonnyroseranch.com

Chris is unfortunately stuck with me now because I want to come back and help him harvest honey and I’m doing everything I can to promote his business. He does amazing work and his passion is so completely obvious that if everyone was as passionate about something in life, this world would be a better place!

Thank you, Chris, for such a unique Mother’s Day Experience. I can’t wait to come back and take more pictures for you!