Beekeeping for a Day!

Ever since I've become a super nature buff, I've wanted to learn how to keep bees. Living in an apartment, managing my own colony really isn't a realistic thing to do. But, UF has a great Honey Bee Club, and they let me join and showed me the ropes!

I put on the space suit they gave me, and got to work! We lit the smoke thingy, sent smoke into the bee colonies, and started to slowly remove the panels.

In this photo, you can see one of the panels COVERED in bees! Each colony has panels in it, and when you don't pack the panels close enough together, the bees will fill in the extra space with their built hive. That's what these bees have done.

The president of the club didn't even have gloves on when we were handling the bees! He'd pick them up by their wings. He did get stung once or twice, but he said it didn't hurt since he's been stung before.


All in all, I had a lovely time, and since this day, I've been elected treasurer of the honey bee club! Once the club starts back up in the Fall, I'll have more updates on my adventures with the bees!

Bees are miraculous creatures who make it possible for us to eat since they pollinate all the food for us. I'm so excited to start back up with the club again soon!