Beeees!!!!

We had only an acre. We had a few episodes with our neighbors, with their kids getting stung. But they were stung because they were messing with the hives.

My dad rented the hives to orchards in the Spring. Then we would place them in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in the summer to get wildflower honey by August. THAT got the best price for honey. Many of our neighbors came by for honey and mom's blackberry pies late summer.

 

Do they still get the honey out by spinning the crap out of them in a tub?

 

Don't know. We ate the comb with the honey. By FAR the best way to enjoy a vintage wildflower harvest. The combs themselves have a hint of the flavor. The pupae were an added protein boost.

 

That's the way I learn things!

Mmm. That sounds good.

 

A good teachable moment if you ask me... lol

 

How did he move the hives back and forth?

 

Pickup truck. I remember riding with him to "our spot" on a logging road in July, placing the hives in meadows of wildflowers. He was associated with beekeepers in Western Washington. We had a 4th of July with them every year. They would talk shop, about which mountain meadows were the best for summer honey.

 

I wouldn't doubt it if he did get put out of service. California has strict rules for people hauling bees into the state. These rules are to be followed by the apiary not so much the driver. Not uncommon for a load to be un- netted and Californias agricultural people pulling hives to look for any foreign, insects, dirt on the pallets that might have foreign weeds and so forth. Bee loads get rejected at the agricultural checkpoint if the don't pass the qualifications.

 

Ironic, isn't it? California has such strict regulations what bees they let into the state. Yet they let Charlie Sheen in.

 

There is a video on youtube about California agricultural regs for bees, it's crazy some of the things they check for.