Britt and the Bees

A few years ago my sister started beekeeping.  I can't get over how brave she is to do so.  Despite my post about saving honeybees (check it out here), I have always been terribly afraid of them.

Here is a peek at her honey harvesting process.  There are beautiful jars of honey at the end of this...

Britt at work.  Isn't she cute?  I love the overalls.

Scraping the panels of the hive into a bin to separate the honey.

According to Britt, here's how it works:  You make a spatula warm and scrape it off.  Then the honey and wax are together.  Wax is much lighter.  I rigged up a way to separate.  It's on the cheap.   

The separation system.

The honey.

The wax.

Voila!  Lovelieness.

Saving Bees

For the last year or so, I have been made aware of Colony Collapse Disorder.  According to a recent Harvard Study, this disorder is caused by imidicloprid, and it causes colonies to collapse even at doses lower than that used in agriculture.

Even more unsettling, when the substance is applied to seeds, it grows with the plant.  Bees seek out the nectar and then take the laced nectar back to the hive.

It’s just insidious.  Personally, I think we need to quit tampering with nature.  But if we can’t go that far, we can at least make it known that this is a real problem.

I mean, can you imagine a world without honeybees?  Without honey?  There is no other way to stop the extinction of bees except to act.

For this reason, I created the above image.  Please use it freely.  Crop it, paste it into something else.  Go to cafepress and make it into stickers.  Put it on anything. Call your senators and representatives.  Make a difference for bees.