Hey – did you know that in addition to flying seaplanes, my ‘dad’ is also an apiarist? A beekeeper, that is?
- Hive security, with my friend Becky
It’s true. We have our own bee society, right here on the dock next to the airplanes. My dad ‘Jim’ takes care of the bees, feeding them, providing them with calming smoke, and just keeping his eye on them. And every so often, they reward us with delicious honey (well, the humans are rewarded. I don’t get to eat the honey…. usually)
It’s a complex business, beekeeping. It’s all about the bees’ devotion to their Queen Bee; the queen is surrounded by worker bees and drones. The queen lays thousands of eggs, and the workers keep things buzzing (heh) in the hives. The workers (female) do all the work; the drones (male) hang around to fertilize eggs and mate with new queens.
And, of course, the by-product of all the work is the delicious honey, the result of the bees’ gathering nectar & sweetness from nearby flowers and plants. That’s another reason why we have so many pretty flowers around our Seattle Seaplanes dock.
Getting the honey out of the hive involves a complex process, too – spinning the honey out of the honeycombs. Here’s a picture of my friend Dominique and my ‘mom’ Linda getting the honey out:
Alas, we don’t sell the honey, but next time you’re down to see us on the lake, take a look at the hives!