Bees

Today was a work day for me... candles.  AND a work day for Carl... nannying.  Carl definitely worked the hardest of the two of us!!  He played with Kaia and Theo, Leandra and Yves, and two twins that live at the workshop.  6 kids under 6 from 9 to 5.  That dude was TIRED!!

 Meanwhile, at the workshop...

 Last week we got our hands on the gook from inside a bee hive.

 We took a small test sample and strained out the honey trying to isolate the wax for candles.

 We were actually able to make beautiful leaf impressions in the flattened wax in hopes of rolling it into a beeswax candle but it didn't roll well.  We figured our was was still holding too much honey and thought we would try to clarify it further, but how?  In the meantime, since the process seemed to be working, we strained the remaining honey.  

I read online that we could leave the wax outside and the bees would clean it completely but I thought... where in the world would we get a bunch of bees?

 As the honey was straining we were candle making.  I noticed a bee on the window.  Then a few more.

 We went to lunch and came back to a SWARM!!!  Inside the workshop!!  For those of you who saw this coming... congratulations... because I definitely did not!

 Only Claudia was brave enough to go inside.  She moved the honey outside and built a smoke fire.  But the bees couldn't get out because they kept flying to the window rather than the door.  So I held a huge canvas in front of the window and they started to go out the door.  But there was a little window above the door and many were still caught.  So Claudia had to stand facing the door, stretch her arms up high, and hold material in front of that window.  And they came... maybe 50 of them... flew out in a frenzy past her face, walking on her arms, and finally away to the honey.  Claudia is fearless!!

 Here they are beginning to swarm the honey.  I was too afraid to take pictures during the true swarm.  There were so many bees at that point that it looked like the strainer was filled with boiling water.  They actually elevated the wax out of the strainer and onto the ground around it so they could better clean it of honey.  It was amazing!  And when one bee would get honey on himself the others would clean him.  Nature is so beautiful.  

Ironically these are the bees that originally made the honey, they were just taking back what was theirs to begin with.  I am very curios to know if they know it was their honey, I kind of think they must.  It only took a few hours before they had cleaned all the wax and emptied the bowl of honey, they were gone by nightfall.

 And I think our wax is ready for candle making.  Not exactly the plan, but we are flexible :)  

God bless the bees.

And we aren't going to let something as petty as a bee swarm get in the way of our candle making... here are the coffee ones.  All done and so pretty.

One of the things I love most about the workshop is the beautiful drive out there, it is set amidst the coffee fields and I love driving (or walking, or jogging) through the coffee fields.  It is also fun to look for wildlife and we spotted a couple guinea fowl and a few dikdiks on our way home today.  The dikdiks are really shy but there is one hiding in these coffee bushes, can you spot it?  Kaia could.

And I guess, before I head to bed, I should confess... yes, I am the one who left the door open during lunch.  Ah well.  Live and Learn baby!