Beekeeping & Stings
This is the first of my reflections from experiences with bees...enjoy!
Bee Keeping is not for the faint-hearted. In fact when you get that first sting, if you are like me, then fifty shades of red will be color of your cheeks. I can still remember the sharp stab by that bee which followed me around as I flung my arms to and fro waving at it. The little bee probably thought I was engaging in a ritual war dance before attacking, and checked his Sun Tzu script. He was quiet, lulling me into a false sense of security, waiting for the unguarded moment to strike. For a brief moment I could not see him, I thought I was safe and suddenly … zap #%*# he got me!
The first sting hurts the most. I screamed, and swore the relationship with my then boyfriend – who ended up being the father of my children - was over! Alas the pain from that sting only made me stronger and wiser for the next one. I thought I was prepared and ...zap #%*# it happened again the following day. Thus I learnt about bees and hives, the smoker, the headgear and coveralls, and beekeeping in general.
I spent a lot of time with my Beekeeper boyfriend extracting the honey from the honeycomb and bottling the honey for sale. The commercial aspect of beekeeping to this day I find very appealing. Bees are feisty little creatures with a mind and function operating with full precision at all times. The golden honey produced is like a golden wrap, soft and sweet!
Beekeeping & Business
A beekeeping operation unlike a business does not require much supervision and maintenance. This operation relies on the Queen Bee aka leader setting up shop and all the workers assuming their position. Everyone who starts working understands there can only be one queen at a time. A successor is always there in waiting – they are tiny larvae which are supplied with nutrients from some worker bees. We can liken those worker bees who attend to the Queen Bee as the human resource department of a company. Their role is simply to ensure procreation by the Queen Bee takes place! A human resource department has a major core function – ensuring the company is well suitably staffed.
When the honey is removed from the hive starter wax trays are immediately inserted in frames to replace the ones removed. As in any operation, sometimes there are casualties in the change process. For many bees, they lose their lives as they try to fight to stay guarding the honeycomb. A good beekeeper tries to minimize the loss of lives, similar to a good leader in the organization. The beekeeper will use his smoker to protect himself and also to keep the bees calm, as the smoke soothes them. In the organization, the leader will try to soothe any worry and concerns arising from changes taking place in the organization.
Sometimes, there would be bees trapped in the coveralls and even in the honeycomb. It was important to be careful when handling everything after the beekeeper returned from the hive. Sometimes I would be stung by a sneaky bee, who knew death was imminent and chose to go out with a bang or rather a sting!
My experiences with bees spanned a five year period, during which time I grew to respect the organization skills and culture of their colonies. It is quite fascinating to be a bee, a blogging one after such a long time. The reproduction of culture and organization is quite interesting from my point of view.
beBee-ing Social
Just as bees are introduced into different territories and countries worldwide- so too has beBee.com - this Spanish Affinity branded network! Simply genius using this natural organisation bee structure as a professional/social template. The world's second widely used language combined with the first. Guess this makes beBee both number 1 &2 in languages!
Bees are needed worldwide to ensure pollination takes place. beBee honey producers are needed worldwide to ensure this quality honey is well replicated and reproduced. I’m keeping my honey social, and looking forward to the growth of beBee!
Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts! You can also share with me on Facebook and Twitter. I like hearing from you!
DWordslayer
Artwork: Artistree -andrew.innocent@hotmail.com
© Donna-Luisa Eversley and D-WORDSLAYER, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Donna-Luisa Eversley and D-WORDSLAYER with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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