A lot of these Challenges were things I came up with, or if someone else thought of, they kind of made sense. This one threw me for a complete loop, and was so different, so unheard of, that my immediate response was, “YES, PLEASE!” My friend Mark Fellure is in the process of becoming a beekeeper (if that’s the right term), right in his own backyard. He has a complete hive set up and offered to let me assist in completing a hive inspection. This is a fully matured hive with at least 30,000 bees making their residence.
As you can see, we got quite an education on the topic. It was really fascinating to watch as Mark did his thing, explaining the hows and whys. Then, it was a bit nervewracking as I got to step in and try it. Not real scary, but I obviously went a little slower, being extra careful not to touch, squish, or maim any bees.
I think my favorite part was taking the hive pieces out and making sure honey was being made, also looking for the Queen. Some of the pieces were quite heavy, and in some cases had a few hundred bees all over them.
Tamara even got into the action, taking one of the hive pieces out and helping inspect. It was really quite manageable, but our natural instincts are to be afraid of bees, because they can sting us. It seems we were never in danger of that, and it was really cool to be able to stand there amongst so many of these creatures and feel totally safe.
We never did find the Queen, but all in all, this was one of the most interesting Challenges I’ve done.
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