The experience of inexperience

The experience of inexperience is not comfortable.  I know because it has met me at every season here on the farm so far.

Today William and I set out to harvest some honey.  I consulted with experts, reviewed a book, read blogs, skimmed forums and finally said we just had to do it.  All we had to do was suit up, smoke the bees out of the box and pull up the bars capped with honey.

It was not easy to get the bees off the honey.  A friend advised us not to over smoke or else the honey may taste like smoke.  So we smoked a little and then just sat with the bees and encouraged them (with a feather) back to the hive.      

This tested our patience.  We tipped the box over thinking that would encourage more out but as I tipped it all the comb collapsed on itself.

We guided as many as we could out by hand, and since the comb had already collapsed I gave the box a little shake. 

We loaded the box in the wagon and headed back closer to the house so we could collect the honey that was dripping all over the place.   We had two food grade buckets set up with a straining bag and the plan was to crush and strain.

On the way back to the house I had a overwhelming feeling that I had no idea what I was doing.  Before proceeding I needed a breather so with bee suits still on I invited William to lay in the grass by my side.  I stared up at the sky and wondered how I could be such an idiot.  Our experience looked nothing like the YouTube videos we watched. 

The sky answered back, be not discouraged, the experience of inexperience opens the path to gained wisdom.

I relaxed into this thought and forgave myself for allowing the comb to crush on itself.  I forgave myself for every plant or animal (and even child) that may have been miss cared for because of my lack of experience.  I am learning not to take my mistakes personally. 
  

It was good that lesson was had because the mistakes continued to happen.

As I began cutting into the comb and dropping it in the bucket I discovered there was some brood comb in there!  If the comb had remained intact I could have inspected each individual bar and only harvested off the ones that were fully capped.  I assumed that they broke off because they were too heavy with honey and that harvesting would be necessary in order to allow space for more brooding.  

Baby bees are all white, Maryanna learned all about it from an expert the last time we inspected the hive.  She saw a few and cried out "stop! don't kill the babies".  I really did not know what to do.  I picked up broken pieces of comb and inspected them carefully before adding them to the crush and strain bucket.  The obvious brood comb I set aside.  

I felt horrible and wondered if the queen got crushed somewhere between the combs.  I won't know until the next time I check on the hive.  I then practiced some really sloppy bee keeping, I took the broken brood comb back to the hive and wedged it in the the empty box.  I told myself, I may not know what to do with this but I'm sure the bees do.  I sure made a mess of their home and prayed they'd be okay.

Honestly I feel more concerned about the well being of the hive than harvesting honey.  I kind of wish I did not touch the hive today.  I wondered if I made a mistake in choosing a Warre' hive over the more traditional Langstroth hives. 

I wondered a lot of things and was grateful for what was learned.

A bunch of bees were lingering along the honey trail to the house.  Peter got stung on the tip of his finger, he said he was trying to save a drowning bee.  He was totally freaking out. I on the other hand was calm, I knew exactly what to do.  I have been through this before, carefully flick out the stinger so you do not squeeze anymore venom into the flesh, rinse under cold water and apply lavender oil and ice.  And I would not have known that had I not experienced a bee sting before.      

I forever will be a student of experience, for that is where we take ownership of gained knowledge, and that is where our knowledge becomes wisdom.