"It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others." A.Holmes

Monday, May 11, 2009

The Bee-Keepers' Apprentice

~Our oldest granddaughter was so excited to help my Hubby, her Poppa, work with his bees. I hope she knows we have bees because when her Daddy, our oldest son was a little boy, the age she is here, he wanted to keep bees. He learned a lot about bees and for his 8th birthday we pooled his saved money and ours to buy his first hive and some of the basic equipment needed to keep bees. We have kept bees now for 24 years.
~Here Poppa and #1 granddaughter open the hive and take a peek to see what is going on. She is holding the frame gripper, that is the tool that grips , lifts and holds the frames of bee brood and wax inside the hive. "The bee master must be first of all a bee lover, or he will never succeed." Ticknor Edwards
~The hive box is lifted to check the box under it. These boxes are full of bees, brood, honey...a whole buzzing , hard-working community of yellow-gold and black bees producing honey, most of which we will take for ourselves later in the year. "How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, and gather honey all the day, from every opening flower. How skilfully she builds her cell, How neat she spreads her wax, And labours hard to store it well, With the sweet food she makes." Isaac Watts (Against Idleness and Mischief)
~This is the big smile we got after she was done helping with the bees! I think she is a natural bee-keeper, and Poppa can use an apprentice !~ "He is not worthy of the honeycomb, that shuns the hives because the bees have stings." William Shakespeare

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I did not realize that you have bees too. Now I know three bloggers who are bee keepers. Poppa is very blessed to have such an eager and joyful assistant. Her smile says it all!!!!!!

Shelley said...

That smile on that cute little face says it all!! Aww!!
I didn't know you were a bee keeper either! My husband has such a fascination with it and has been doing research - I'm going to point him toward your post today! He may have questions for you! :-)

Anonymous said...

She's a lovely little girl:-D

LindaSue said...

You and your household are bizzy as bees! Wonderful apprentice and I'm sure a happy proud grandpa to teach her the right way to care for bees.

Eggs In My Pocket said...

What a sweet little "queen of the bees" she is! You are both so blessed to have such a helper. blessings,Kathleen

Thistle Cove Farm said...

What a great little helper! It's wonderful she's learning about bees at such a tender age. Daddy has kept bees for almost 70 years and I've been helping him for as long as I can remember. Next year, I'm getting my own hive.

KathyB. said...

Mildred, bees are good to have, and so is the honey!

Shellmo, your husband should get bees! We began keeping bees in our city yard. They are endlessly fascinating!

Amy, we think she is! We love her to pieces!

LindaSue, yes, we are bizzy.I love to watch my husband show the grandchildren such things!

Kathleen, I was surprised at how she was unafraid of the bees right from the start..a natural!

Thistle Cove, Sandra, you have been so richly blessed. Your father must know a great deal about bees..will you be getting your bees from him ?

Old Centennial Farmhouse said...

GOsh, what sweet pictures and a nice thing for poppa to do with his precious greanddaughter! I am becoming more and more interested in the beekeep thing! Would you be able to do a post about how to get started, or recommend a book perhaps? LOVELY POST! My grandpa was a beekeep, unfortunately, we never were invited to help and he's gone now, so I can't ask him!
XOXO
Joni

noble pig said...

That is so neat. I bet she absolutely felt empowered working with the bees. What wonderful lives these kids are experiencing with you!

KathyB. said...

O.C. Farmhouse, good idea! I will list good bee-keeping books and you can e-mail me and I will have my husband answer any questions..

Noble Pig, I do know she loves doing things with Poppa!And she likes bugs too!

Karen said...

Very interesting work. It is great that the kids can learn all about bee keeping.

Paula said...

Awww.... she looks so cute in her bee-keepers' suit!

Connie said...

Such a sweet smile! I love that photo, Kathy. :) Looks like she is having a great time with the bees and sharing time with Grandpa.

Wobegon Cottage said...

I forgot to tell you how nice it was to see grampa and grandaughter working together. It is so nice in a world of video games, movies. computer games and such to see kids doing something natural. I LOVE IT. You can never learn to much and somethings have to be passed down from generation to generation. How does a bee skeep work?