Homestead Handbook Beginning with Honeybees

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Well, almost time. First, let me squeeze in a word of advice. If you've never (or rarely) worked a colony of honeybees, go out for a time or three with someone who knows how to do it before you try it yourself. An experienced beekeeper can show you tricks of the trade that you'll never find in print. More important, that person will have the hard-earned poise that can help calm those anxious feelings you'll have... and will be able to show you how you're supposed to behave around bees.

So just this once, don't be self-reliant. Call up your local beekeeping society (your county extension agent can put you in touch) and find out the name of a competent hobby beekeeper who'd be willing to show you around his or her backyard apiary.

You'd also be smart to have an interested (and, yes, somewhat brave) friend accompany you the first few times you work a hive yourself. When the human-to-honeybee odds are 50,000 to 1, you can't help but be a little nervous... and if you're too nervous, your actions may irritate the bees. But somehow, if the odds are 50,000 to 2, you really will feel a whole lot more comfortable. I guess it just helps to have someone to talk to who doesn't buzz back.

OK, whether you're alone or with a friend, here's a thumbnail sketch of what you do. Remember, if you cooperate with those honey makers, you'll get back from most hive visits without so much as a single sting. So play the game on their terms:

[1] Visit the bees on a sunny day when nectar-bearing plants are in bloom. Most of the bees will be out working the flowers — and the rest will be too busy to worry about you.

[2] Wear white or light-colored clothing (not wool). Tuck your shirt into your pants and your pant legs into your socks. Wear a hat, bee veil, and gloves. Don't wear perfume or eau de barnyard (animal odors). And wash your beekeeping outfit : regularly. If you don't, the residual odor of any past bee stings will act as an attack alarm . . . and every time you visit, you'll get stung more!

[3] Use a smoker — a little firebox-and-bellows rig that's standard beekeeping equipment. You can start it up on crumpled newspaper and then run it on dry grass, baling twine, pine straw, wood shavings, or anything else that's convenient and nontoxic.

Later, as you get more experience and confidence, you may abandon some of those dictums. The day I first got up the nerve to shed my bee gloves was the last day I wore them. I found it a lot easier to work a hive smoothly bare-handed, so I got stung less without gloves than I did with them! Likewise, a good beekeeper can work most colonies in just about any weather.

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