Honey Harvest

Today we went to Wisconsin to visit Dan, Peggy, and Wyatt because Dan was planning to collect some of the honey from his hives, and Karl had wanted to see firsthand where honey comes from. Before we went out to the hives, though, Karl and Wyatt had a chance to hang out together.

After lunch, it was time to head out to the beehives. Good thing Dan had an extra hat for Karl! Matt just had to do his best to be brave.

Let's go get some honey!

Even though Karl was completely covered, he didn't want to get too close at first. He watched at a distance as Dan and Grandpa smoked the bees to calm them down.

Soon he got braver...

...because he wanted a closer look at this!

After the full frames were collected, it was time to uncap the cells. Dan showed us how to do it first.

And then we got to have a try! It is unbelievably sticky work. Karl even tried a piece of honey-filled beeswax, but decided he doesn't like to eat honey like that. Laura was not too interested in the whole bee-business. Well, she's interested in bees but she had no desire to be anywhere near them. She did supply us with some fun bee facts though; did you know that only female bees have stingers, because they're the ones who go out and collect the nectar, and the male bees stay in the hive to work? And that at the end of the season, when all the work is done, the female bees make all the male bees leave the hive, essentially killing them? Dan and Dad confirmed that yes, bees have a very strange way of doing things.

Once the honeycomb was uncapped, the frames went into the spinner to spin the honey out. Because of our crazy fall weather, the honey was really thick and needed to warm up inside for a while, so we couldn't wait for the finished product. Karl sure had fun seeing how it was done, though!

After we finished with the honey work, Karl and Wyatt went back to playing. When Wyatt turned one last month, he got a new swingset. Karl helped him break in the new see-saw.

I'd say both kids now have a new appreciation for honey, and I'm very proud of Matt for remaining so calm even as bees kept flying all around him!