Immersion Experience Notes
9/24/2020
What When How
On 9/24 I visited a beekeeper's hives. Before we suited up, I took half an hour to conduct an interview with the beekeeper, Tracy Pielemeier. She gave me insight on her experiences' as a beekeeper as well as her opinions about what is causing the bees harm. After the interview we put on bee suits equipped with a veil and gloves, and set off towards the bee hives. The overall experience went better than I expected. No bees tried to sting me or find their way into my suit, which I consider to be a win. It was incredibly informative to interview a veteran beekeeper and observe bees up-close in their home.
Informative slide of honeybees.
A Brief Reflection
During my preflection, I expressed apprehension for my immersion experience. I was scared that the bees would think of me as a threat and might swarm around me. This, however, did not come to pass. When I first looked inside the hive, the bees continued to work and care for one another. They scurried along the richly colored honeycomb, preparing the hive for the upcoming winter. Three moments I will write about in detail are when I first looked into the hive, my interview with Tracy Pielemeier, and how the bees in the hive behaved. My favorite part was observing the bees in the hive. I learned more than I expected through this experience, and am excited to write about it in detail.
Beekeeper, Tracy Pielemeier, holding a frame from one of her hives'.
Notes
I'll share the interview portion later as part of my feature style article, but here are some of my notes from the hive portion of my experience.
Walking up to the hives I heard the loud buzzing. We sprayed the bees with smoke to block their pheromone signals which made them more docile. The bees did not seem to mind our presence and carried on with their work. The frames of the bee box were tightly packed together, with an equal amount of space between each frame. When lifting a frame, the amount of honey in the comb could be estimated by the weight of the frame. One of the bee boxes had a pleasant aroma of flowers wafting from the inside. The bees in that hive were curious and peaked their heads over the frames to check on us.
Informative slide about bee broods.