After breakfast we put on our beesuits for the first time. Walking into the larger apiary, we looked into one of the beehives to understand what was going on. The Top Bar Beehive is broken down into about 15 top bars. Each one has large amounts of comb coming down from it. When picking up this comb you see about 500 or so bees attached to each one. We used a smoker to simulate a forest fire so the bees would be focused on survival and not as much stinging, giving us access to their hive.
Looking into each comb you can see the different capped broods for workers, drones, and queens. If there are no eggs in a hive, there is likely no queen, which is a huge problem for both the bees and beekeeper. Some of the combs were filled with pollen as we were able to try some. You chew the comb like it is a piece of gum and then spit out wax when you are finished.
Later on we went on a hike around the town. We met the locals, skipped some stones, and saw some of the beautiful landmarks that make Jamaica all that it is.
Cool stuff! And better yet, no bee stings today - good for you! :)
ReplyDeleteUpdate: Forgot to mention we had to move 5 hives that were too low and in range of bullfrogs, a honeybees top predator in this area, which led to two more stings..
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