3/27/2014

Grandpa's Bees Tales

When I am thinking of bee keeping I have a feeling it has been for generations in my family. My grandpa tales assured me that it was not just a marginal accent of folk life but it was also important and integral part of a family.

My grand grand parents who knew a lot about bee keeping and strongly supported this idea. 

 My dad's parents started new bee hive garden right after Second World War. 

When after second world war, my grandpa established himself on recovered land and started bee keeping you could say that he Started the tradition there and you can still find hives till today as this became a landmark of that region. After getting to know all the stories I know that behind sweet honey bee there is a whole science. There are different architectural styles of hives, each of the hive has its number just as our apartments do. A bee man keeps notes he almost can call them by their names.




Bee keeping was definitely my grandpa’s passion. After second world war there was not much you could find as far as equipment needed for this trade, hence him himself was coming up with the tools and just totally everything he made by hand! He planted various flowers and fruit trees close to the bee garden so the small bees don’t have to go far and look for nectar! How thoughtful of him, he was sweet just as the honey.

My grandpa had three sons and they were watching him working and sometimes were helping him around, until one of them got stung by one of the bees and the play ended with hysterical screaming and running away. The only one who could bare though all this was my dad who till today passionately cultivates family tradition. He then passed it on us.


My grandpa the best story teller and bee keeper ever


My dad who took the bee keeping over.

I will never forget how my grandpa was teaching us how to take honey out of a dish so we don’t split even one drop. He explained that a sweet small bee needs to fly back and forth thousands of times to collect nectar for that one drop that we would have spilt.


I don’t know whom I cared for more then, the small bee who I got stung once in a while by or my grandpa who loved them so much. He never let us kill the bee ever! He would get real mad if we would attempt to do something like that. If by any chance a bee got to the house, he would take his time forever to gently let her out. He was even talking to her and getting irritated that she would be jailed. I remember when he let them walk all over him, he would never ever panic, on contrary he would just ignore or watch them closely.

I have always felt as my grandpa protected the bees so intensely. He was very honest beekeeper and I didn’t understand why for the most part of my childhood until now when I myself pay attention to what is happening to our earth who is trying to tell us something, but not many want to listen. Sometimes I wonder how loud does the nature needs to scream for us humans to hear. What else need to happen for us to notice before it will be too late. I am very happy that my dad took over this profound mission to raise, multiply and protect bees.



My dad and I are starting this series, so stay tuned as we will make this subject more approachable and enjoyable. We also will include the smallest once so they can start developing sweet love to sweet extremely important creatures.



Enjoy coloring☺

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