Today I worked my first bees in the Central African Republic. Maybe I just happened to hit one of those few docile hives, or maybe these bees here at not as aggressive as the ones I am used to, but I was shocked at how little they tried to kill me. Actually, I did not even have many signs of aggression!
This was a great first hive to work, for a few reasons. The first: I took my friend Alexander along to give him a feel for the job and see if he wanted to be a part of this project. He had never worked bees before, so it was good to get him in a bee suit and be able to start training him on a simple hive.
Secondly, I was testing out a new bee suit design made from local materials. I had no idea whether it would work or not. The more I worked on it, the more little things I found that could be altered. If we had been in Congo, I probably would have been stung more than just a few times with the current design. Today I did not get stung once!
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| The stump the bees’ hive was in |
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| Cutting open the cavity to look for the queen |
The hive was in a rotting log in a coffee plantation. After chopping it down, we split it open and in a matter of seconds I found the queen! I saw a piece of wood that was covered in bees and thought she was probably hiding under it. As I picked it up and told Alexander to help me look for her, we both saw her. Alexander, who had never seen a queen bee in his life except in the pictures I showed him before, was very excited to see her.
After she was captured and put in the hive, the rest of the colony followed. We wrapped the hive in a mosquito net, and walked home. The hive is now sitting in the Garden of Eden, in its new home.
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| Alexander proudly holding the piece of wood we found the queen on |
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| Alexander holding up the queen in the little queen catcher |
