The Way We Were Wednesday

The Way We Were Wednesday - Honeybees

My father would have taken this, my grandfather working the bees, barehanded. A pair of leather gloves would last him two or three seasons, my father would go through two or three pairs a season.

My grandfather grew up dirt poor, too many kids, too little of everything. He discovered bees nesting in a dead tree, someone showed him how to harvest the honey, a year or two later someone showed him how to move the bees into a modern beehive, and his lifelong passion for the gentle craft of beekeeping started. He was gentle, slow and caring with the bees. Yes, he would get stung, and he would tell you that was almost always because he was careless or moved to quickly. And yes it hurts to get stung. After a few stings for most people the reaction changes, you don't swell the same way, but believe me it still hurts. (My grandmother was allergic to bee stings, and had a couple of life threatening experiences.)

At one time, my father and grandfather had about 2,100 colonies of bees. We shipped honey by the tractor trailer load in 55 gallon barrels, for pennies a pound.

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