Learning from the Bees–Holland

“Are we there yet?” Jacqueline looks out from the Frankfurt airport. We had what we thought was a long three-hour layover in Germany, but it honestly took us about that long to find our way through the airport to our flight, which was waaaaay at the other end of a loooooooong series of terminal.

Well, after a full year of planning and anticipating, Jacqueline and I are now in Harlaam, Holland with our bee friend Ferry and his lovely wife, Anna! Yesterday was a whirlwind of plane travel, customs, and more plane travel. I finally figured out how to move my photos to my computer (no small feat for a techno-wimp like me…).

Gathered for good conversation, good cheese, and sane political talk.

So, here we are on a rainy, blustery first day, making plans for bee fun. Today, we plan to visit Ferry’s apiaries, which are stashed about town. Ferry has been making woven hives of many kinds, and his work is beautiful. This afternoon, he plans to take me to his office where he keeps his skeps and his straw. My fingers are itching to learn!

Ferry showed us his straw square hives, which have dense, thickly woven walls and wooden, deep frames. The skep is a thin-coil, light-weight swarm catcher you can attach to a long pole!

We’ve shared how conflicted the relationship between natural and conventional beekeepers is, world over. We’ll be visiting a local Waldorf school with hives and a large garden, and get to see how beekeeping looks in schools here. There is so much to see and to do, but my focus is on soaking up all the many ways of beeing, and bringing home new perspectives so that our bees continue to benefit from all this cross-cultural sharing. I’ll do my best to post again tonight so show you what you’ve seen today!