My Pursuit Of Bees: Saving The World

I am saving the world in my backyard. Now, I know what you’re thinking, and I can assure you that I don’t have a secret lab. My version of saving the world is a little more natural; I raise bees. Bees are important to us because they pollinate the crops that we eat on a daily basis. If bees became extinct, our food source would rapidly disappear. The hive is in my backyard, which never had a purpose besides populating the weed community, but now there is. In the summer of 2010, I went with my church youth group to Heifer Farm. That is where I was first introduced to beekeeping. The hives were not what I expected at all. They look like file cabinets made of wood. Although the hives weren't like the stereotyped hives in movies, I stuck with it and learned something new. …show more content…
We had help the first time, but now we just do what we think works best. We always try something new when we harvest. First, we smoke the hive to get most of the bees out. Then we break the seal around the top of the hive that the bees make to keep other unwanted bugs out. We take out the drawers where the honey accumulates underneath, which is protected by wax made by the bees. We bring the drawers into the pool house and take a hot knife to burn off the wax sealing the honey inside. Once the wax is burned off, we put the drawers into a spinner; we put the lid on, the container spins and the honey is forced out. The honey drips out of the bottom into a container, which we bring inside. We then put the honey through a strainer to extract any remaining wax. After a couple of days, the honey goes into bottles, which we give to neighbors and