Burt Beebe says he was interested in beehives and how bees create honey, so he began beekeeping in 2016.
One thing led to another, and when he retired as a culinary arts teacher, he and his wife, Anne, started their business, HoneyBeeMade, in Big Flats, New York, in the heart of the Finger Lakes.
What started as a couple of bee hives expanded to four bee yards and approximately 100 hives.
Always the teacher, Burt says he began to think about teaching visitors about honey bees and their process of turning pollen into honey. His idea grew into The Beekeeping Experience.
After putting on protective gear, I followed him to the hives.
In the bee apiary, I learned about keeping bees, how the bees make the honey, and maintaining the hives. I even saw a queen bee.
The session is 90 minutes long and limited to four participants. Burt provides all the protective equipment.
He slowly removed each hive section from the box and explained what I was seeing.
The queen bee can lay up to 3,000 eggs in a single day. Most of those will be fertilized to produce a worker bee, while the unfertilized will result in a drone.
A single egg the size of one grain of rice is laid in one of the hive's hexagonal beeswax egg cells.
After three days, a honey bee egg will hatch to reveal a larva. This small white grub has no sight or legs at this point.
Young nurse bees feed the larvae for the first three to four days to sustain the larvae. After that, the feeding regime changes depending on their caste.
Queens are fed royal jelly, which enables them to become queens.
Female workers are fed worker jelly containing less protein. Male drones are fed drone jelly containing less protein.
Depending on their caste, bees spend different amounts of time in the larva phase. Queens spend the least time as larvae, while drones take the longest to progress through this stage. A larva will shed its skin several times as it grows.
After about six days of larva development, a nurse bee caps the cell by covering the opening in wax. This protective covering is in preparation for the pupa stage.
Throughout the pupa phase, the future bee takes shape under the capping. It is still a tiny organism growing fast and developing wings, antennae, legs, and eyes. Tiny hairs will start to sprout up over its body.
Once the adult male leaves the cell, worker bees clear it out, preparing it for the next egg.
Now that the honey bee has reached adulthood, it will immediately go about its duties as part of the colony. Bees don't require nurturing in infancy. They are ready to go as a queen, worker, or drone when they leave the cell.
Burt explained that the life cycle is easy to understand, as he showed me the bees in different cells the entire time.
Burt and Anne produce several types of honey from the four apiaries: Spring Wildflower Honey, Summer Wildflower Honey, Fall Wildflower (Dark) Honey, Clover Honey, Basswood Honey, and Goldenrod Honey.
After my experience, I left Burt and his bees with a new understanding and appreciation of honey bees and the hard work that goes into caring for them.
For more information about The Beekeeping Experience or to purchase HoneyBeeMade products, click here.
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