Have you ever been in a group situation where you’re asked to tell everyone an interesting fact about yourself? You can see everyone else sitting and thinking about which experience/talent/characteristic they should share, trying to find something different than everyone else’s without breaching the “weird” threshold. For the record, I cross that line ALL THE TIME. Moving on. After several rounds of this through middle and high school, I finally settled on a go-to interesting fact: “I raise bees with my dad.” Uncool? Maybe. Awesome? Definitely.

I remember that afternoon in second grade- the one when my dad got the phone call from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm to say his bees were ready for pick-up. Confused? When a beekeeper wants to start a new hive (the individual towers of white boxes), they order a box of bees. It’s a small box weighing only a couple of pounds, but its a livewire of 50,000 buzzing bees, kept at bay by only a layer of metal netting.  In other words, every mother’s nightmare. And we were sticking TWO of them into the back of our white Chevy station wagon. It was awesome.

After 15 years of apiary experience, my dad has become quite the honeybee aficionado. From lame bee jokes (i.e. “I ordered a hive of Italian bees- their ahoney amakes you aspeak alike athis!”) to keeping a colony alive through the winter months, he knows pretty much everything. It’s only natural, then, that my dad is the one Fairfax County Police Department turns to when they have a swarm on their hands (side note- he’s a lieutenant with FCPD as his normal job). A swarm is what happens when the colony gets too big for their location; the queen initiates the departure and is followed by 50,000 of her closest friends. She lands on a tree branch, and the rest of the hive proceeds to hang on around her, creating the ball of bees you see below.

He got a call last Friday about a swarm in front of the Reston station and called me to see if I could come. I was ALL. OVER. THAT. I’d just received the Nikon D700 in the mail for a weekend rental and was itching to try it out.

To get the colony to stay in the hive box he’s providing them, my dad sprays the frames of comb with sugar water. It’s a substitute for nectar, and it pushes them to start making honey.

I was standing about a foot away from the hive when this photo was taken without any protective gear, and they didn’t bother me one bit.

The bees take the wax provided to them and will build upon it, creating more cells of honeycomb to store honey, larvae and pollen. Pretty cool, huh?

After we gave them a chance to settle for a few minutes, my dad put the top on the hive to keep out any curious animals. In the photo below, the bees are sucking up the sugar water my dad sprayed into the hive.

Dad, explaining how swarms work and why they happen to a fellow officer. He is one handsome dad!

By the way, I’ve decided to dub Mondays “No-Monotony Mondays.”  This just means that I will always post something on Mondays, and that whatever it is I post, it won’t be boring. I think this leaves the door wiiiide open for interpretation, don’t you? 🙂

Honeybees and law enforcement don’t mix

May 9, 2011

  1. Jean Hensley says:

    Great pictures. Good job!

  2. Karen Field says:

    I loved how you said the queen leaves and takes 50, 000 of her closest friends!

  3. Kathy Anderson says:

    Great job but did you really need the gun to let those bees to know you meant business?

  4. Tim Field says:

    In interest of full disclosure, a swarm is normally between 10-25 thousand bees. She leaves about half of the hive population behind. Also, I was coming home from work and did not do this on duty, in case an angry taxpayer thinks I bee-keep while working.

  5. Jame Gumb says:

    Are you a licensed beekeeper?

  6. Tim Field says:

    I am a “hobbyist beekeeper” and as such there is no license requirement in the Commonwealth of VA.

  7. Jame Gumb says:

    Can I purchase the honey to feed my Death’s Head moths?

  8. Tim Field says:

    Sorry, I don’t sell it but you can purchase local honey at Krops Crops located on 193/Utterback Store Road in Great Falls, VA

  9. Pat McRotch says:

    Wow, what’s the most times you’ve been stung at one time? what is the stuff in the green bottle that you spray on the bees. Does that calm them down?

  10. Elizabeth Victory says:

    Wow, this is freaking awesome! All I know about bees is what I got off of Winnie the Pooh, so, this was very informative 😀

  11. KT Merry says:

    Very interesting! Saw your comment on my blog -thank you!- and checked out yours and got totally sucked into this post…. learn something new everyday!

  12. […] dad is a beekeeper in his spare time, and it’s only natural that Isabella now wants to tag along. So for her […]

  13. oh. my. gosh. i am TERRIFIED of bees. like, a crippling fear. you know how you’re terrified of needles? times that by like 093u10974019830198211121314x and that’s my fear of bees. you are the bravest person i know!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Leave A Note

Browse the Conversation ...

Snag the Gear Guide

Heck yes! Gimme!

Curious about my gear list?

Follow along

@abbygracephoto

info@abbygracephotography.com

WASHINGTON, DC & WORLDWIDE

DESIGN BY TONIC SITE SHOP 

© ABBY GRACE PHOTOGRAPHY 2024 

Back to top

JOin the abby grace newsletter community

Get on the list

for exclusive, once-weekly business & photo tips, early access to new courses and resources, and occasional Mean Girls quotes. 

%d bloggers like this: