It was one of those long circular discussions but in the end Clara agreed, no pet bees would be living in the house.
Had Jane been paying attention to our conversation, rather than cowering and screaming each time an escapee honey bee from the two packages in the back of the truck whizzed near her, she would have been relieved.
Clara inspects the two packages of bees.
Even I, the one who brought the idea of beekeeping and then the bees into our life, draw the line at house bees.
But neither of us could stop Clara from dreaming and wondering… What if she could hold still enough that one would land on her… and maybe stay on her hand during dinner… and she could feed it some honey… and if it was there at breakfast she could give it a little more…
“What if… Mom… What if…”
Clara holding up the queen bee in her cage for inspection.
Needless to say Clara was a willing and enthusiastic helper when it came time to hive the bees that evening. (Jane stayed in the house with Ivy.)
Clara listened to what needed to be done. She watched as John and I installed the first hive and then grabbing her own little hive tool, did it herself on the second.
Clara dumping the bees into the hive.
As the final bees got shook out of their box and into the hive, she caught some on her glove, “What if just one of them stayed on my hand Mom…”
“What if…”
Behind the Willows 
Such a gorgeous post, Jessie.
It reminded me of a Susan Hill story – ‘The boy who taught the bee-keeper to read’
Thank you. I’ll have to try and read that story, though it looks a bit hard to get here, but that’s what Amazon wish lists are for right!?! 🙂
Loved both this post and that Susan Hill story. I’m currently trying to make my garden as bee-friendly as possible. Not brave enough to keep any myself, though.
I bet a bee friendly garden will be beautiful as well as extra buzzy! 🙂
She is so cute 🙂
I think so too! 🙂 And I love the last picture I got of her, that one might have to make it to a wall or something one day!
I think that is great that she loves it so much.
Me too! I hope she continues to love it, an extra helper with the bees would be fun and well helpful! 🙂
That’s my girl!
Thanks for getting her such a great birthday present!!!
Brave girl!
Just this week she walked up to me with a honey bee on her finger. She was very excited. I think she might have rescued it from some water and after a minute or two it flew off, no stinging. (phew!)
Delightful. That Clara is one intriguing young lady.
Your photos are gorgeous! I am allergic to bees but try to explain to my kids how important they are to our circle of life. Everyday when they consume the fruit that they do I try to tell them that it wouldn’t be existent if it wasn’t for the bees. Thanks for sharing this with me at #momsterslink.
I’ll admit I usual skip the circle of life thing and go straight to honey when it comes to bee importance. While they are important in many of our crops two of the three girls would be happy to exist on peanut butter and honey sandwiches and could care less about Almonds! 🙂 In seriousness all of them (and me too) loved the documentary More Than Honey. Absolutely awesome shots in the hives and talks about bee keeping commercially and small scale. Interesting for everyone! Thanks for visiting!
Reblogged this on Anita Dawes & Jaye Marie and commented:
fascinating stuff… more people should be helping the bee population…