Hey Everyone,
A couple of months back I got a call from a gal that works in a nursing home about 45 minutes from here. She said they have a "continued learning" program where the residents try to learn about something new each week and would we be willing to come down and give a talk about honey bees and beekeeping. After talking with her awhile I mentioned that the local nursing home had brought a van of residents here to our house and parked right next to the hives while Josh went through the hives and I was inside the van explaining what Josh was doing and why. My thought was instead of but no, she thought that was a great idea and they could do that the day after our presentation.
Nervous beyond words, Josh and I showed up at the nursing home at 9:30, set things up, got introduced to the group (some were just local folks interested in honey bees) and started in. In the blink of an eye an hour and a little more had gone by! It was FANTASTIC! We fielded some very good questions from people who were obviously paying attention and just had a ball! The "talk" was supposed to run an hour and I thought we'd be doing good to stretch it to 45 minutes. An hour or so later, after we were done many of them hung around to talk and ask more questions. We weren't able to start carrying stuff out until a quarter to 12! I met a guy who was 94 and looked to be in better shape than me! Then I met a gal, who's father had been a beekeeper, who was 101 and called the 94 year old kid!
The following day (Friday) we were to get started at 10:00 but the van showed up at 9:30. I climbed in and explained we were still waiting for Josh and again they started in with questions! One gal who had attended the previous day had brought her sister as she had had such a good time! We didn't head to the hives until 10:30, with Josh and I answering questions the whole time! Josh found a queen and brought the frame to the windows and pointed her out so everyone could see. He also brought up a nice frame of mixed brood with a good example of a honey arc, pointing out the larva, capped brood and eggs, as well as the honey and pollen. Next he brought up a beautiful frame of capped honey and that's when they started clamoring for honey sales! Unfortunately we were out of honey and weren't going to extract until yesterday. I thought they may attack so I brought out some lip balm and gave them each one. That's when they started asking about maple syrup! After using the bathroom and walking around a while to stretch their legs they finally left at 12:45! It was supposed to be an hour, from 10:00 to 11:00. Started at 9:30 and waved goodbye at 12:45. Smiling and loving ever minute of it. Sorry to ramble on about it but it truly was a great experience. Thanks for listening, Ted
