You Might Bee A Beekeeper’s Spouse if…

1. You might bee a beekeeper’s spouse if you have discovered that you can get wax off the floor with the plastic lid from a peanut butter jar. Good tip, I know. LOL

2. You might bee a beekeeper’s spouse if you know how to get bees out of your house by going to the window that they are buzzing at, covering them with a cup, and then sliding a paper underneath them. Then you rush to the nearest door with the cup and paper on top and release the little bee before it flies away.

3. You might bee a beekeeper’s spouse if your freezer is full of wax that you have collected while doing hive inspections. Keeping it in the freezer keeps the wax moths from contaminating the wax. I’m thinking some day I will pull some wax out of the freezer and try and eat it.

4. You might bee a beekeeper’s spouse if you can say you know how to hold a frame of bees and not flinch while doing it. The first time I did it I felt like I was living my worst nightmare, and I had to get through it. Now I look at the frame full of bees, and I think “Wow there are some Queen cells on this one. I got to get my hive tool and smash them.”

5. You might bee a beekeeper’s spouse if you know how to drive a four wheel truck up in the back country of your local parkland filled with tiny trails that are called “fire roads” filled with lots of bumps and crazy turns. You also have to know how to honk a lot to warn the hikers who sometimes wave at you, sometimes give you dirty looks, as you pass by them.

6. You might bee a beekeeper’s spouse if your whole house has turned into a miniature honey factory. For example, your dining room is stacked high with bee boxes with honey that are ready to bee processed. In your kitchen there is an extractor. In one of your bedroom’s the bed has been removed, and it is filled with honey boxes that are either full or were once full and are sitting empty of honey waiting to go to back up to the apiary.

7. You might bee a beekeeper’s spouse if part of your “business” financial plan is to keep a float by trying to just by the next year’s equipment and queens. You do your best to try and not give away to much honey, to be a good office manager, and sales person to grow your business. The best thing that has happened since the Corona Virus hit is the fact that I do porch delivery because now people don’t come into my house and see my messy house! Yes! I do miss talking to people, but I did get embarrassed when I was folding laundry, and customers would literally would come ring my door bell to buy some honey. I would open the door, and I would be like “Hi.” And “They would be “Can I buy some honey?” I would be dying inside knowing that they would see the awful mess. I would let them come in and buy the honey. However, half of Simi Valley probably now knows that I am a very messy house keeper. Oops.

8. You might bee a beekeeper’s spouse if you know how to organize equipment up at your apiary, know how to get a swarm out of equipment, know how to cut the brush around your apiary, and know how to get the cute little creatures out of your equipment with out screaming. There is a pet friendly repellent we used to repel them so they scurry back to their natural surroundings. The couple times we had the problem I was so scared and grossed out. So I used a lot of it!

Instructions on getting a hive out of your equipment: Use your smoker to calm the bees. Then open the lid and spray a small amount of Fischer’s Bee Quick on the lid. We do a cross pattern. This will get the angry bees out of your box. You can use your beekeepers tool to carefully cut the comb. Make sure you get all the brood that is on the comb into the box. When you get a swarm out of your equipment is important to use big rubber bands (purchased at Staples) to hold the comb onto empty frames. Then put the frames in a box. Make sure you get the Queen in the box. Do it close to night so the foragers will return to that box. After about a week requeen the Africanized Queen with a European one.

9. You might bee a beekeeper’s spouse if you know your Saturdays and maybe part of your Sunday is going to be filled with a lot of beekeeping. You might bee a beekeeper’s spouse if you just don’t care if people see you driving down the road in a strange white suit all sweaty and gross with bees flying out of your truck because you just finished doing hive inspections. And the best part of this drive is that you are now heading to that glorious place called 7-11 to get a wonderful drink called cold Gatorade!

10. You might bee a beekeeper’s spouse if you at first just kind of laugh at your spouse’s obssession with bees, become sort of interested in bees, and then something about the bees perks your interest so you dive right in and start actively learning all you can about bees until you are right there with your beekeeping, obssessed spouse.

Corona Virus Update

During this difficult time Simi Valley Bees knows it is the public can be easily exposed to the Corona Virus when doing shopping. We are trying to mitigate that risk by doing socially distancing and porch pick up of our honey products. If you wish to order honey please call Linda at 805 404-4955 then make an appointment to come over to our home at 2125 Magnolia St. in Simi Valley.

Bee Season is Beeing Happy for Me

I am very excited about our new upcoming season at Simi Valley Bees. We were fortunate to have ten hives go to Almonds this year. That was 1/2 of our Apiary gone to help pollinate the Almond orchard. It felt like quite an accomplishment because each hive had to have two deep boxes with ten frames in each box. That is very hard to do. Plus they had to be healthy from the Verrora Mites. We are looking forward to producing Almond Honey, possibly Citrus Blossom honey if we have things go well in Somis this year, and more wonderful Wild Flower honey. Who knows what kinds of adventures Matt and I will have in our Bee Suits? We always look like Teletubbies when we are running away from angry bees. We have had our truck stuck up in the canyon before. We have had to deal with angry Africanized bees. Plus all of the fun adventures of hearing creepy sounds in the bush at night when we work the bees at nigh in our apiary. When I heard an owl hoot for the first time in my life I thought that was amazing. When I hear sounds an animal stalking us because it’s running around in the bush around us. Well, that is not such a great sound. Especially when you have heard reports of the mountain lions around Simi Valley.

Producing the honey and storing the honey is well, my least favorite part. Why? Because it’s all over my house! I have one of my bedrooms taken over as a storage room for all of the boxes of honey from last years harvest. There is honey boxes of bottles in my dining room. I have my office as proudly the messiest mess ever because it has Simi Valley Bee supplies all over it. It has a honey closet in it. My living room has two retail shelves in it.

What is my favorite part of my business? Dealing with the wonderful customers. Everyone has been so supportive of our business here in this area. I get such wonderful comments about our honey. People close their eyes to my obvious difficulties with my huge laundry on couch (sorry for that nonprofessional disclosure, but it’s so true). They just want the local honey.

Now for a personal note. I broke my neck when I was nine. I had neck surgery in December of 2017. I have had severe pain which most people would not want to acquaint themselves with in their life time because my nerve pain settles on the occipital nerve, which is the main nerve at the base of my neck. I have had amazing doctors, physical therapists, acupuncturists, pain doctors, and psychiatrists, to help me deal with my pain and anxiety that comes with it all. I also struggle with ADD. That is really hard on everyone around me. I really wish I did not have ADD. A lot of times I laugh at the crazy things that happen because of my disorder. Like when I mix up my words and say funny things, or when the keys fall off the hook, and I go crazy looking for them. Things like that. I just have to laugh, and not go insane. In addition to this all I am at the point in my life where I am getting back to my chosen profession which is working in the field of Special Education. I am now working as an after school teacher at Walnut Canyon Elementary School as an Arts and Crafts teacher and a Homework teacher in Moorpark. I really love working with children. They are very understanding of my weaknesses like having a short term memory problem (I forget their names a lot), and we have tons of fun. I let them make slime on Fridays in my classroom.

I love the people that message me, and want to meet me and get some local honey. It is such a privilege to go beyond my health problems and live my life fully. I have had some amazing doctors who have helped me do this, and I am so grateful for them. Sometimes when I have a migraine Matt will need help up in the apiary. I go help him, and the migraine goes away. Or I need to go work, and I have a migraine. Then the migraine goes away. It would seem that getting beyond my self helps these pesky migraines to disappear. That’s all I have to write. My poor dog Rocky really wants to go on a walk, so I think I will take him on a walk now. Thank you everyone who supports my bee business. I love all my customers and friends a lot.

Being a Mascot

I never thought I would be a star at a preschool at age fifty two, but apparently that is one of my job descriptions as a beekeeper. I went recently to the Justin Early Learning Academy in Simi Valley, CA, and they had the bees as their school animal/mascot. Consequently, when I was honored to teach these adorable preschooler (some with Special Needs) about bees they were pretty impressed by everything I did. They really liked doing the bee dance where we threw our arms in the air and went one way and then another. They really liked it when I impersonated the queen bee, but when I put on my beekeeper suit some of them where really impressed. And sadly some of them were a little scared. It was the best experience I have had as a beekeeper. It was also amazing to see how well the staff handled all of these kids. Some of them where a bit more challenging to manage than others, and especially when tantrums happened. What would preschool be without a good tantrum from a child now and then? Pretty boring. The kids were also really great at asking me questions, which I was pretty blown away by because I thought they were very well educated about bees. None of them liked being stung by bees that is for sure. The staff was very amazing, and so accommodating to my needs. When I left they all said to me, “Bye Beekeeper!” It was so precious seeing their big eyes and enthusiasm for all things bees. I would go back and do this service any time! 🙂

Cute Clip Images of Bees! Click and Print

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