Luv and Learning is for the bees! haha

Today our field trip to the bee farm started with an early, hour long drive to foxworth, MS!

 Here our tour guide Mr. Wesley is showing us an old bird house that is visited by a blue bird 3 times a year to lay eggs.

 Getting a look at some of the hives that were destroyed by beetles.

This is his well that is over 570 ft deep!

 We all got to take turns drinking from it.  It had a little metallic taste to it but he explained to us how he runs it through a filter for drinking

The bees start to get active when the sun begins to shine.  We were there at just the right time to watch them starting to come and go!

Here is everyone meeting the "bee angel" that hangs on the tree "blessing" the bees :)

 Mr. Wesley was very knowledgeable and taught us all about the organization of the bee family.  He has won blue ribbons for his honey for 6 years in a row at the state fair.

 Grover was the dog who went on the tour with us.... I'm not sure which one enjoyed the company more...Mr. Wesley or Grover.  I know we were enjoying them too!

Honey comb frame

                                                   The kids got to take turns dressing up in one of the bee keeper suits and walking over to the hive with some help for a closer look.  They LOVED it!

You can barely find Maelin in that thing. haha

Kevin got to suit up and help "smoke" the bees before the kids walked over to the hives.

Mr. Wesley showing us an active "frame."

 Maelin and I holding very still while the beekeeper is showing us the bees!

Mr. Wesley...A wonderful man with a wonderful story!  He was so nice and very happy to help and teach.  Thank you!

 Shea in the honey house seeing how the honey goes from hive to honey jars!  First the frame gets the top wax cut off, then the frame goes into the next machine and spins around very quickly.  Then the honey is strained and moved to the final storage tank.

Ready to bottle!  He was kind enough to give each child their own "bear" full of honey!  What a fantastic field trip.  Hope everyone else learned something new about honey or honey bees during september...National Honey Month!  I know we did!!