Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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What Opening Papa Joe’s Journal has Also Opened Up

After posting that first little excerpt from my great-grandfather’s apiary journal, a couple of wonderful things have happened. It all makes me even more excited to continue exploring this delicate treasure.

First, I took the old green journal with me to last month’s Frontier Country beekeepers’ meeting and asked one of the old timers, Chuddie, if he recognized my Papa Joe’s name. It may sound like a long shot to you, but Joe Nieberding was a slightly older contemporary of Chuddie’s in the seventies and eighties, and the Oklahoma beekeepers keep a pretty tight circle. Also, Papa Joe was apparently president of the statewide beekeepers’ association for some years and was pretty well known.

Well, Chuddie definitely recognized the name. His face lit up and he nodded slowly then said with firmness, “Oh yeah, yes of course I knew him! Joe was quite a beekeeper. I learned a lot from him.” That was the first time I had ever heard someone refer to our family patriarch without his proper title, “Papa,” and it was strangely endearing. The feeling was akin to realizing your parents have friends and colleagues who love and respect them but have nothing to do with you or your siblings. Weird, but proud. And never mind that I had first just shown Chuddie this yellowed newspaper clipping of my Papa Joe. 

Papa Joe calming a swarm of wild bees, most likely destined for his personal apiary in Miami, OK.
This is Papa Joe calming a swarm of wild bees, most likely destined for his personal apiary in Miami, OK. I found the photo between the pages of his beautifully scrawled journal.

 

“Do you know this man?” I said awkwardly, indicating someone fully dressed and covered to the point of perfect anonymity.

“Are you touched in the head?” Chuddie might have thought. “Someone take her bees away pronto.” 

Anyway, Chuddie was as sweet as honey and never actually said that. In fact his kind words about Papa Joe brought tears to my eyes. I resolved at that moment to learn everything I possibly could from this journal. It really is a treasure, both from the family history perspective and that of the beekeeper trying to learn from someone’s firsthand experience.

 

This journal entry mentions missing bees with no explanation as well as queen economics, two problems that beekeepers still discuss. And January rain.
This journal entry mentions missing bees with no explanation as well as queen economics, two problems that beekeepers still discuss. And January rain.

 

Whatever your hobby, wouldn’t you love to have an expert with decades of experience coaching you, whispering gently at your elbow of his trials and errors while you feel your way through a new challenge?

That brief exchange with Chuddie was amazing and inspirational. Then this happened…

Last week I received a note from a gentleman named  John Foust, a distant cousin who grew up with my Dad and his siblings and who spent lots of time with Papa and Mimi Nieberding during his college years. You can actually read John’s first note as a comment on that first apiary journal entry; I’ve inserted it here.

Joe Nieberding was my grandmother’s little brother. I grew up with the wonder of his veterinary hospital, his bees, his pigeons and his amazing garden. And the mysterious basement. I spent a lot of time with him, refitting the wax bee frames, playing with some of the puppies, and hearing him name some of the pigeons. Aunt Velma and I attended community concerts together at the NEO Fine Arts Center, my first experience with some of the old big band groups such as Fred Waring. Velma’s mother Mrs. Seamster lived across the street from the college. I mowed her lawn as a kid, and parked in her driveway when I attended NEO. She always had a jar of cookies for a hungry college student. Uncle Joe’s notebook must be an amazing peek back into history for you. The story I remember as what must have been most memorable was that “Army Captain” Joe and Velma attended the premier showing of Gone With The Wind in Atlanta. Velma talked about the reception afterward with the actors. Dr. Joe and Velma were amazing people.

Wow. This beautiful couple who were already gentle, loving, and fascinating to my memory have so many stories I have never heard. What a colorful life they built! I had no idea that sharing Papa Joe’s apiary journal piecemeal would yield such a wonderful history lesson, such a kaleidoscope view into my own family. 

John I have emailed a bit since and I am hopeful that along with my Dad he will help me share more stories about the Nieberding gardens, home life, and bee yards. It all felt so magical to me as a little girl, and my wish to know more might be granted.

And can I just say how refreshing it is that someone else remembers the fabled cellar and its toothy  dangers? I mean, I grew up believing all dark bodies of standing water to contain hungry crocodiles. Even small puddles.

This gorgeous honeycomb, empty, still smells magical. I keep it on my writing desk.
This gorgeous honeycomb, empty, still smells magical. I keep it on my writing desk.

What childhood memories of your own would you like to expand? Which of your elders would you love to sit down with and take notes from their lives? Who do you emulate, either accidentally or by design?

For the record, we only have alligators in Oklahoma.

Definitely no crocodiles.

Probably.

XOXOXOXO

Sweet Oklahoma Legislation, Call to Action SB 716

 Good morning friends!! I am writing a bit hurriedly this morning to ask you all for some help. It’s a step outside of my comfort zone. Today, I am getting involved in some local politics. Cue dramatic music…

…PAM-POOM-PAM…

   This afternoon, our Oklahoma State Representatives will be voting on a bill that will have a great impact on beekeepers and fresh honey availability.

   It’s really important and kind of exciting!

   If passed, Senate Bill 716, the Oklahoma Honey Sales Act, will allow small scale or hobbyist beekeepers (like little ol’ me) to sell their fresh, local honey without cumbersome regulation and inspection through the Health Department.

   This bill has already passed the Oklahoma Senate (unanimously I might add), which is great news. If today goes well then our fellow beekeepers will be very happy and everyone can continue enjoying the sweet, sticky, healthy stuff at a reasonable cost.

   Please let your Representative know who you are why you care about this, and that you support this bill. Some of our smart  peers have been working really hard on it already. My friend Maribeth in particular has spearheaded the writing of the proposed bill; and others have been lobbying at the Capitol with jars of their fresh honey in tow. Isn’t that a great way to be remembered?

   I have no honey to offer yet, but I will be contacting them today to make a last minute impression. And if you are an Oklahoma friend I hope you do the same

   Honey is nature’s perfect food. It doesn’t spoil. It will not grow bacteria. It has myriad health benefits. And keeping bees is not just good but vital for every aspect of our agricultural environment. Everybody should care that bees thrive and that honey is free flowing.

   Lastly, and this is the crux of it, honey and other bee products are certainly not cheap to produce. It’s a pricey and risky venture already. So further restricting production and distribution would be bad for everybody, not just beekeepers who want to share their liquid gold now and then. Small scale apiaries need the freedom to operate simply and economically, or they may be forced not to operate at all. And we need exactly the opposite to happen. We all need more beekeepers, not fewer of them.

   This matters to you IF…

  • You are a beekeeper yourself
  • You like to purchase local honey from farmers’ markets, etc.
  • You live in Oklahoma and eat any kind of produce (because bees pollinate everything).
  • You are in Oklahoma and read this blog. (C’mon you guys!! All three of you contact the Capitol today!)

   

   How to help, exactly? Glad you asked.

   The Oklahoma House of Representatives will be voting on this bill today at the 1:30 session. Between now and then, please call or email your Representative. Make sure he or she knows you support SB 716 and that you hope he or she will vote to support the Oklahoma Honey Sales Act.

   If you do not know who your State Representative is, you can click on this link right here. Super easy. Make sure you scroll to the bottom to find your State Representative, not State Senator or US Representative, as this website will provide all elected officials.

   Thanks in advance for participating and being part of an important decision! I hope you all have a beautiful day. Give thanks for the rain Oklahoma is receiving this week. Daydream about the crops that will grow from it and about the gorgeous honey we will soon be collecting. 

“If you want to gather honey,
  Don’t kick over the beehive.”
 ~Dale Carnegie
 xoxoxoxo

Get Stung with Me

   This is honey bee weather, you guys. The days are warm. The breezes are mild. And everything seems to be in bloom. Every single day these past couple of weeks we find our fuzzy little winged princesses foraging in the box woods and fruit trees, and as of yesterday they have even discovered purple clover. Do you know how exciting it is that we have so many bees alive and thriving after last autumn’s wax moth decimation? Well it’s very exciting. That’s what it is.

   I have several hive-related tasks to compete this month and might even be adding more bees, and I am so excited to tell you about all of it. But for now, an invitation…

I also have some deliciously good news about this pretty girl…

   This weekend is the statewide spring conference for the Oklahoma Beekeepers’ Association. Honey lovers from all across our great state will gather to discuss best practices and lessons learned, the weather, and some changes in cottage law legislation no doubt. We will also get to hear guest speaker Reyah Carlson, an experienced apitherapist. Check out her blog right here. She is the featured speaker and will be giving talks about, in her own words:

“the health benefits from all honeybee produced substances.. raw honey, pollen, royal jelly, propolis and venom from the sting. I will also be demonstrating sting technique and application.”

   Did you catch that last part? She will be stinging people. With bees. On purpose. I am planning to volunteer, because I don’t know when to say no. Family legend has it that my great-grandpa Papa Joe Neiberding, who was a locally famous beekeeper, stung himself deliberately as a cure for his arthritis.

   I kid you not. I am Arthur-free but still looking forward to being reminded of how a bee sting feels.

   So even if you have little interest in raising bees yourself (although you should consider it), please come to the Cleveland County Fairgrounds tomorrow morning and watch me get stung. I don’t mind if you laugh when I cry, so long as you bring me a cookie or chocolate covered almond or something as a comfort.

  Okay, gotta go. Handsome is on his way home and we have two wonderful friends coming over for dinner tonight. I hope you have fun plans for this gorgeous March weekend! Thank you so much for stopping in at the digital W.


“When you shoot an arrow of truth, 
dip its point in honey.”
~Arab Proverb
xoxoxoxo

Hive Relocation Day

   Yesterday was an important day around here, certainly one for the hobby farmer’s history books. Maribeth visited  and helped me relocate our two bee hives from their temporary waxy box homes to their permanent wooden-ware mansions. Perhaps you remember the painting day we had just before bringing the bees home? Well, now all of that artwork and passion is being enjoyed by our 79,987 buzzing, winged children.


   In addition to moving the bees, we also collected several gorgeous chunks of honey comb and about 20 ounces of fresh, raw honey. Our very first harvest of the molten treasure was a surprise to me, as was seeing how much honey was still on the combs when we closed the hives and walked uphill. Just weeks after bring bees to the Lazy W, we have our own honey. Gobs and gobs of the thick, oozing beautiful stuff.


   Everything went so well. The hives are abundantly healthy and have multiplied much more than I expected. The interior frames are all loaded with honey comb, capped brood and capped honey. The bees were active but gentle. Incredibly gentle. At one point I was holding a frame, gazing at the many different cells and relishing a sudden forest breeze, when I felt a heavy vibration on my right hand. At least twenty bees were clustered across my gloved knuckles, buzzing and flittering without malice. Throughout our afternoon in the bee yard, Maribeth’s arms and veil were often dotted by a dozen or more bees, and they all swam loosely and peacefully in the air around us. I never one time felt threatened.

As always, Mia kept his loving vigil. He never crossed the threshold into the bee yard,
but he honked affectionately and watched us the whole time we worked.
Smoking the bees a little calms them down, and it calms me down too.
The fragrance is not terribly unlike burning sage,
a Native American practice used in all kinds of prayerful rituals.
Can you see how glossy and vibrant the honey is? And how calm the bees are?
And how much I look like a Pink Power Ranger?
Here I am using a plain spoon from the kitchen to scrape the raw honey.
Later I licked it clean and almost cried form the deliciousness.
Maribeth is using a “hive tool” to scrape that thick, luscious raw honey off of the frame.
You can see its straight path there in the gold.
Honey bees possess incredibly accurate internal “GPS” systems,
allowing them to distinguish between two hive locations only inches apart.
Bonus points if you can find the Lazy W animal portrait hidden here! 
I now know that a quart of raw honey weighs about three pounds. 
This little guy was nobody’s enemy.
He only circled our sticky tools and gloves and meandered through some clover patches.
But Maribeth did endure one sting yesterday and taught me that
rubbing a speck of honey on the site will kill the pain and reduce swelling.
   Big thanks to Maribeth for her guidance and help. If any of you lovely people should ever venture to keep bees, I hope you find a mentor like her. She makes it feel as natural and magical and unintimidating as it should, and I believe the bees are benefiting from this mood. Also big thanks to Handsome for photographing our second trip to the bee yard yesterday. I will treasure these photos.
Work Hard & Be Sweet to Each Other  
xoxoxo

Bee Adoption Day

   So, if you are kind enough to be following along, you probably know that last night I drove to Noble, Oklahoma, to collect my bees. Just out of curiosity, what image does that conjure up for you? I’d love to know.  This whole experience has been replete with learning, so plenty of what I have expected along the way has been wrong.

   Fortunately, I was able to make the drive with my mentor in tow, which soothed my jangled nerves considerably. Maribeth and I enjoyed a leisurely drive brimming with more of that sparkling conversation. Have I said lately how lush and healthy Oklahoma is right now?

   The apiary is not too far off of the interstate but at the end of a long, green tunnel of a road, surrounded by horse farms. Once we found the driveway, it was unmistakable.

Royal Bee Supply, Oklahoma

   What a humble, happy entrance. And the owners/operators, Marcy and Brian, are just as warm and friendly as you might imagine honey lovers to be!

   Did you know that bees crawl at night instead of fly? And that they return to the hive every night, after a day of collecting? We arrived at dusk purposefully so that the boxes we purchased would be as full of bees as possible.
   I’m sorry these photos are a bit fuzzy. My gloved hands were not cooperating so well with the tiny camera buttons. Anyway, here you can see a lidded cardboard box with a river of bees on the side. This is rush hour traffic on the crosstown, taking bees home after a long day at the office.
   The atmosphere last night was slightly different than what I sensed at the bee yard last month. I heard the bees, certainly, and I saw plenty of them; but the mood was a smidge more intense than during those previous morning hours. Perhaps that is the most important difference, that we were visiting at dusk when workers were returning home instead of during the time when so many would have been absent. 
   Also, these hives are all in transition, perhaps not perfectly acclimated to their surroundings. I never felt afraid, just more alert than before. I kept close track of every bee that landed on my veil.
   Oh, and I wore better jeans this time. Here you can see the cuffs duct taped to my rubber boots. Scraps of the yellow badge of honor are still on my boots this morning, and I plan to leave them there.
      This is one of my two NUCs being loaded into the truck bed. Do you remember the first time you drove your newborn baby around in a car seat? Dilute that feeling just a little bit and add to it the fear of getting pulled over by the highway patrol car and then witnessing the officer’s subsequent violent stinging, and you can sort of imagine how I felt driving home.
   None of that actually happened. It just crossed my mind. About seven times.
   On the way back toward Oklahoma City, where we would deliver Maribeth’s full hive, we stopped for an ice cream refreshment at Braum’s. This was a life event worth marking with a really special memory, you guys. Ice cream was most definitely in order. We went inside wearing our full bee suits. Much to my eternal disappointment, not one person asked us about our amazing costumes.
   
   We finally made it back to the Lazy W around 11:00 p.m., and Handsome met us at the little bee yard he had built for me. At a safe distance but wearing only flip flops, shorts, and a tank top, he took a few photos of Maribeth and me placing the NUCs. That inky blackness behind us is the infamous Pine Forest which definitely houses a large deer family and may or may not be populated by Sasquatch. 
   I could barely settle down at bedtime. It felt like Christmas Eve, the last day of school, and my birthday rolled into one, since I knew that in the morning my 80,000 new fuzzy babies could be out exploring our farm. 
********************
   Somehow, though, I did manage to sleep. Then at dawn my eyes popped wide open, long before the alarm sounded or the roosters crowed.
   
   I ran to the upstairs west window to see if the NUCs were okay, although from that distance all I could see was that they were still where we left them. Handsome, still in bed, asked wearily, “Are they swarming the windows yet? Hey, do you know how to do a trach on yourself if you get stung? We should have had you tested for bee allergies before doing this.” 
   “Umm, no, they’re not swarming babe. Yes, I know how to do a trach if needed and I can put a bandage over it too, but don’t worry, I don’t think I am allergic. Everything is fine.”
   I have a really good husband. And my reply was at least 65% true. Actually I have no clue in the world how to do a safe tracheotomy on myself or any other living creature. But we do have a lot of Benadryl.
********************
   This morning has been cool and mild. Almost no breeze again, very similar in feeling to that day we visited Cripple Creek Farms. As soon as I could, I ran outside in yoga pants, a pajama top, and flip flops to see what was happening. The grass was so dewy that in just a few steps my legs were splashed and flecked with mud. My arms were gloved in goosebumps, but I wasn’t sure if that was from the cool air or more nervous excitement.

   
     Chunk-Hi was breathing steam as he grunted and patrolled the sunrise.
The moon was still lingering like a gypsy earring over the back field.
   Good morning Daphne! Look at that sleepy little ankle… Almost done shedding, she looks like she’s wrapped in black and chocolate satin. When I first walked down to inspect the bee yard this morning, she had been watching it too, as had a tiny wild rabbit, three Canadian geese visiting from a nearby pond, and most of our chickens. Handsome and I remarked on how the animals all notice promptly when something new arrives at the farm. It’s pretty fun to watch our little society react to subtle changes.
All is well.
   Around 6:45 a.m. the bees were just beginning to peek out of those small entrances, probably explaining why the chickens and guineas suddenly found other things to do. I have spent my morning so far doing one little chore at a time, layering each one between additional trips downhill to see the bee yard.
   Today promises to be full of equal parts work and beauty. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by all of this, to be so steeped in nature and miracles.
   Thanks for following our little bee adventure! I will keep you posted.
Life is Just Too Sweet
xoxoxo