Sticky Sweet Sunday Science

Way back when I was in third grade, someone brought a jar of honey to the classroom.  Inside that jar was a huge honeycomb.  It was my first view of an actual real-life honeycomb and I, and all the other city kids in my class, were duly impressed.

Ever since spring sprung we have had a swarm of bees living in back of our old red shop which needs to be torn down.  My oldest son has been stung the times he drove the tractor too close to that shop.  My second son is more cautious and keeps at bay when he's on the lawnmower.

Today my dear husband was determined to get to that sweet sticky wealth of gold.  So he sprayed the bees on the outside of the wall and after church he ripped a piece of the wall down.

To reveal a real-life, honest-to-goodness honeycomb!

That's when the kids came and got me from the house.  We waited for the bees that were still alive to quiet down then my husband dragged the board away from the shop.

Even the dogs were curious at this new found confection...

...while the men did some problem-solving of their own.

It's awfully messy and awfully sticky and awfully yucky looking but it's also awfully amazing too.

We inspected the honeycomb and found the larva stage, the pupa stage, and some that were ready to hatch but still holed (bottom side up) into their little brood cell.  My pictures didn't do the stages justice and the close up shots were too blurry.  I was not able to get the larva stage in pictures.  Everytime we poked at one, it popped open like pus.  Pretty gross! 

This site gives better pictures of the various stages: Bee Life Stages

So what did we do with it? 

We're homeschoolers, remember?  We do more than just look and taste and study and analyze it.

We eat it too.   : )

We're pocketing quite a few pots of honey and sharing them around our neighborhood and with our family and friends. 

Which introduced me to lots of Internet study on the preservation of honey and (much to my family's cautious horror "Mom's on one of her weird kicks again." ) I'm looking at the medicinal benefits of honey:

• Honey is the only food that does not spoil. "If kept in an airtight container, honey keeps indefinitely."
• "Honey from your local area can definitely help your allergies."
• The nectar brought to the hive by the bees is about 60% water.
• Honey is terrific for a sore throat.  (I've had first hand experience with this.)
• Honey is good for your skin.  (I'm sure my hands alone with be silky soft for the next week.  It's a very messy job.)
• Honey is a natural antiseptic.
• Honey has these minerals in it: magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium chlorine, sulphur, iron and phosphate. (And I haven't even listed the vitamins yet)

[Disclaimer: To all bee enthusiast who are horrified that we may have taken out a colony of bees that benefit our communities and our gardens and our natural existence at large, let me assure you that the hive is still alive and well.  Or, at least we think it is.  Some of the bees are still swarming around the shop and, as far as we know, the queen bee is still there.  The worker bees are huddled in protective tribes around her. We have tried finding a professional bee removal person with little success.   We have an old business card for one...just one...bee remover and have not reached him yet.  One day the shop will need to be torn down and, now that our science experiment has been explored, studied, and duly recorded, we will turn over the hive safely as soon as we can.  Thank you for your concern.  I share your sentiments.]

Comments

[molly mcgovern]

That is so awesome, YUM!! Makes me want to read some AA Milne!

[joann10]

This is very cool science. I'm jealous.

[Cheryl M.]

Neat Cay! My dad used to have bee hives and the whole process is simply amazing! In fact, right now I have 5 lbs. of bees wax in my closet....yes, in my closet...I'm gonna make candles one day. Another thing I love to make is garlic honey....fill a pint jar half full with peeled cloves of garlic and pour raw honey over them and cover, let mixture sit in a sunny place and give a good shake each day. After a few weeks remove whats left of the garlic pieces and you'll have a delicious mixture. Great on baked or grilled chicken and good for sore throats in the winter. :)

[Cay in La.]

Cheryl,
That garlic honey sounds terrific. Thanks for the tip. I'm going to make at least one jar of that to try it out.

[Alice Gunther]

What a fascinating post!

This is one to share with my children!

[Ruth]

This is awewsome!!!!! What a great experience for the kids! Wish I was there.

[betty]

This brings back memories of when my Dad had bees! Like you said, the local honey is best for allergies! What a wonderful find! Great science project and you can eat it as well!

[Maria Ashwell]

Yum! Looks like so much fun too.

[Jennifer]

Incredible, Cay! Traveling through CA we collected so many different bees from the fields in the grill of our truck. Made me feel a bit guilty too...

[Dawn]

Wow, Cay!! This post is incredible! I will be reading it to my boys later today!

[Jen]

How awesome!! We actually use bees for pollinating our cranberries, so if you have any way of transporting them to us in Wisconsin, we'd be happy to use them. Well, since that won't happen, have fun and maybe this will be an annual thing for you. Talking to bee keepers, I've heard that bees like to "come back" to the same place year after year.

[Maria]

Awesome, Cay!

[Jane Ramsey]

This is soooo cool, Cay! My boys love honey. They eat it practically every day (peanut butter and honey sandwiches, which I never heard of til I moved down here!) Enjoy your liquid gold there!

[amount]

The change of our climate is, is not natural

[Sandra]

I haven't gotten much done , but it's not important. Not much on my mind lately. Today was a total loss, but so it goes.

[Dana]

How neat!!! My daughter has a friend whose family has bee hives. I told my husband and told him & my daughter that someday, when we live in the country, I want some hives. They both quite seriously said "no way!"