Childhood memories
Before my beekeeping began
My story starts well before I got into beekeeping.
My fascination for insects reaches back to early childhood. Growing up in a village in Germany I had my first encounter with bees when I was about four years old. Some country folks kept some beehives on their farm and told me if I wanted to see the bees, all I needed to do is poking a stick into the hive entrance. To satisfy my curiosity I tried that moments later, with great success, many bees came rushing out. To my surprise they followed me, running away, screaming. I got a few stings, one on my tongue that got swollen, all for the amusement of those country folks.
Later the same folks ensured me that bumble bees don't sting, so they won't do me any harm if I caught them. Well, I had to try that and when I caught a beautiful bumble bee with my bare hands I was disappointed, to say the least. The sting of a bumble bee did cause great pain! I learnt from that and did not take any further advice from those people.
During my primary school years I sometimes considered it safer to stand close to the schoolyard waste bin surrounded by bees and wasps. I figured out that bees and wasps did not harm me but certainly kept schoolyard bullies away when they were misbehaving. Despite their tough appearance those schoolyard bullies were afraid of bees and wasps. However, this protection scheme worked only in summer. I should probably mention that bullying was not really a big issue those days, but worth this story to tell.
At school we made several excursions to a nearby beekeeper who introduced us to his fascinating world of bees. All of his beehives were mounted into one wall of his Bee House. While the bees were flying in and out of their hive entrances on the outside of the Bee House, we could enjoy watching them in their hives from the inside, through glass windows. We were shown the queens, each of them marked with a little round, coloured number plate on her back. Most fascinating though was the bees' waggle dance, we could watch them for hours. I visited this beekeeper many times after school on my way home, watching the bees through the glass windows - and never again poked a stick in the entrance.
A Bee House similar to this one