Honey Bee

You be my honey suckle; I’ll be your honeybee! Those famous lyrics by Blake Shelton in his song Honey Bee have a whole new meaning to me after talking with Maggie Wachter, a bee farmer located in Urbana, Illinois. She has bees in several locations and they aren’t much different from any other farm animal. Bee’s have 2 stomachs, similar to that of a cow, in order to carry the honey from one location to the other.

“My typical day includes processing the honey, bottling it, and extracting it and also checking on the bees. I try not to disturb them too much because bees have been around for about 2 million years and they have been making honey a lot longer than human beings have been around to manage them. They are the experts in knowing what to do. I stand anywhere from 6 feet to a foot away to look at them and make sure their activity looks normal,” Wachter said.

To hear an interview with Maggie Wachter, click here http://www.box.net/shared/egcxz0yqgyccytnyi5ke