by Harry Reichart

The Harris County Beekeepers Association held their Second Annual Honey Harvest Event at the home of Bill and Pat Whittington in Dickinson, Texas on Aug. 1, 2009.
This event is designed as a teaching tool to help new members, as well as, older members hone their skills in the art of beekeeping. It was a hot one this day, but it didn’t stop the event from going forward. There were 40 members, plus one of the local news media, Mr. Tom Jacobs, Editor of the Pearland/Friendswood Journal. Also in attendance, a bee lady Tamao Ito, from Tokyo, Japan. She was there to learn first hand how beekeeping is done in our country. Tamao has some beekeeping knowledge in her raptor - helping me extract and bottle the honey for the past two years and loving every minute of it. She is a very good worker and really fits into the bee industry so she can take her knowledge with her when she goes back to Japan.
The event started at 9:00am and lasted until 1:30pm. We had a social hour in which beekeepers could get together and swap tales of their beekeeping experiences. We divided into two groups. Bill and his son, Curtis then gave us a tour of the uncapping and bottling - many questions of how the processing takes place. Then our hostess, Mrs. Pat Whittington served us her famous homemade ice cream and goodies that were consumed very quickly by the group.
President Don Angle then had the door prize drawings - two Queen drawings for the ladies and two Drone drawings for the guys where held. After things settled down, the fun really began. Everyone suited up in their bee suits to make the journey to Bill’s beeyard. With the help from David Patterson, Bill then opened a few of the beehives for the members to observe and to look for the queen, workers and drones. Bill explained what each one does for the survival of the colony, and the proper way to open the hive and what the purpose of the smoke does.
I know that I had just as much fun interviewing everyone with my video camera, so they could share their beekeeping experience and knowledge.

You can visit us on our website @ www.harriscountybeekeepers.org.