The Sourwood Flow - Part II
This is BeeCo Apiaries fourth consecutive year of taking bees up to the mountains for the Sourwood Honey flow.
The process of moving bees back and forth from the Blue Ridge Mountains to our apiary in middle Georgia and extracting the Sourwood honey is always an adventure — one that Mother Nature controls. The weather, timing of the sourwood bloom, and health of the bees are all key factors.
We also acknowledge that none of this would be possible without helpful folks at both ends of the road who make this a smooth process. From the secure site and location in North Carolina for the bees, to the many helping hands that load, unload, and pull supers from the hives, to the strong arms that help move the very heavy 5 gallon buckets of honey, it definitely takes a team to make this happen.
Collaboration and synchronization…as always we turn to the bees for the important lessons and reminders.
The trailer with 26 hives surrounded by an electric fence to deter the black bears and curious cows who shared the pasture.
Tuesday, August 4, 202: Bringing the Bees Back Home
5:00 AM — The alarm clock goes off and we quickly get dressed, pack up, and grab a coffee on our way out of the lobby of the hotel in Franklin, North Carolina. The 64F temperature that greets us as we walk outside is a welcome change. We drive for 30 minutes and meet Gary at the entrance to his property where our bees have been since late June.
5:30 AM — Gary gets in the truck and navigates us back to the far corner of his cow pasture. They’ve had a lot of rain the past few days so the field is softer than we when we drove in with the trailer six weeks ago. It’s still pitch black outside. We put on our bee suits and headlamps and start to close up the hive entrances with foam piping. A few of the hives are bearding out. We use a spray water bottle on these to encourage as many bees back into the hive before putting the foam in place.
Mary uses a spray bottled filled with water and a bee brush to get some of the bees back into the hive before plugging the entrance for the trip home.
5:50AM — After we’ve closed all of the hives, we take down the electric fencing that surrounded the trailer and linked into the electric fence that Gary has around his pasture. Thankfully, the fence did its job as there are no signs of disturbance from cows or black bears. Once we have the stakes pulled out, we roll the fence up and put it in the back of the truck.
Taking down and rolling up the electric fencing we used to surround the trailer.
6:00 AM — Next, it’s time to back the truck up to the trailer hitch. Once we get it loaded, we do a final walk around to make sure everything is in place and the hives are secured. We check the tire pressure, put the truck in 4WD, and then give it some gas. You can tell that the trailer has settled into the ground these last few weeks….we’re hopeful that it’s from the weight of all the honey the bees have brought in! Thankfully, we pull the trailer out without any issues.
A final check to make sure tire pressure is good, hives are plugged, and straps are tightened.
Just enough light to make out the Blue Ridge Mountains as we drive out of the property and begin the journey back to Sparta, Georgia.
6:15 AM — The pre dawn light is just starting to make the outlines of the Blue Ridge mountains visible as we drive down the dirt road out of Gary’s property. From here, it will be about a 3-4 hour journey back to Sparta, Georgia. We can feel the weight of the trailer behind us - both as driver and passenger. It is heavy. That’s a good sign.
7:00 AM — We decide to stop for gas in Clayton. The extra weight is causing us to burn through it faster than usual. The morning sky is beautiful and the fog sits in the mountain pockets making for the most spectacular sunrise as we drive out of the mountains with about 1.3 million bees in 26 hives strapped down onto a trailer.
Quick stop for gas in Clayton, Georgia. The pockets of clouds rest in the mountains making for a beautiful morning and drive.
10:30 AM — We make it to Sparta. Everything went seamlessly. No flat tires, no hive catastrophes. Bruce Morgan and Jeff Lacksen meet us to help unload the heavy hives. Using a tractor with a pallet and board, we shimmy two hives at time onto the board then secure them down tight with a ratchet strap. Bruce drives the hives over to the wooden stand, lowers them to the ground, and we use a metal hive carrier to then lift the hive up onto the stand. We then repeat this process thirteen times to get every hive unloaded. There are a few light hives, but overall they seem much heavier than when we took them up. Over the next two days, we will know exactly how much honey they are holding.
The trailer loaded down with bees and Sourwood Honey just arrived back in Sparta.
Jeff and Mary Lacksen and Bruce Morgan unload the heavy hives back into the apiary.
After loading two hives from the trailer, Bruce Morgan drives them to the stands in the apiary where we use a hive mover to lift them onto the wooden stands.
12:00 PM — After unloading all the hives, it’s time to let the bees out. I walk through the apiary unplugging the entrances and picking up the foam piping that’s held the bees captive during our travels since the early morning in North Carolina. The bees are very ready to be out. For a moment, I stand in amazement and awe as I observe them pour out of the entrances of the hives that now fill the apiary.
Notice the bees at the hive entrance in the bottom right of this photo. This was seconds after unplugging the entrance once all were unloaded from the trailer.