Adventures of a Beekeeper: North Carolina
For this years 4th of July I took a spontaneous trip to North Carolina. I managed to find my way to Honey Girl Meadery located in Durham, North Carolina.
What is Mead?
Mead is an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices, grains, or hops. Mead was produced in ancient history throughout Europe, Africa and Asia, and has played an important role in the mythology of some peoples. The terms "mead" and "honey-wine" often are used synonymously.
The lavender lemonade was packed with absolutely amazing flavor! Unfortunately I could not take any bottles on the plane with me or else I would have bought every last drop. I did however buy a t-shirt, a small glass of honey and a cute little magnet. Also the flight tasting came with a small wine tasting glass with the Honey Girl Meadery logo on it.
About Honey Girl Meadery: Honeygirl Meadery celebrates nature and the work of honeybees by making meads (honey wines) with seasonal fruits, flowers, herbs and honey. Made in Durham NC, Honeygirl meads are hand-crafted libations made in small batches with all natural ingredients.
To find more information about Honey Girl Meadery visit here: http://honeygirlmeadery.com/
Or if you happen to be in North Carolina, take a trip over, they have a cute outdoor seating section with beautiful flowers outside.
Next Stop: Burt’s Bees Headquarters.
From watching the documentary Burt’s Buzz and learning about Burt Shavitz and how Burt’s Bees was started I was very intrigued to see what the headquarters looked like. I also listened to the podcast Burt’s Bees: Roxanne Quimby on How I Built This with Guy Raz, and form listening to this episode, I was truly interested to see how Burts Bees is run today and what products they actually still make from honey. Unfortunately Burt’s Bees does not offer tours of their factory or even allow walk-ins, however they do have an amazing mural outside their building painted by The Good of The Hive: https://www.thegoodofthehive.com/ Which was completely worth the drive to see this amazing mural.
As soon as I turned the corner to see this mural my eyes lit up like fireworks, I couldn’t believe the detail and the life size art work this artist made. Not only that, they were actually honey bees! Bee paintings or drawings are usually bumble bees, mason bees or some random bee that kind of looks like a Honey Bee but really isn’t, but this mural actually had realistic honey bees painted on this brick building!
It started to rain and I forced my friend out of the car to take my picture because I couldn’t miss this opportunity. Of course as soon as this was happening, others started to slow down as they drove by to see why we got out of the car to take a picture. Then they noticed the huge mural and decided to get out of the car themselves for a photo opp as well. As I got back into the car, I googled who painted this and shortly after learned about "The Good of The Hive” and all the other Murals Matthew Willey has committed to painting around the world.
To see more of Matthew’s amazing murals or to go to one near you, check out his website: https://www.thegoodofthehive.com/murals
Next Stop: The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
Going into any Museum I always look out for anything bee related (it’s a habit), and I wasn’t expecting to see anything about bees, but to my surprise, they not only had one section about bees, but M-U-L-T-I-P-L-E! (Que my overly excitement giddy screams).
Making my way through the first floor looking all over for any information on bees I could not find much so I headed to the second floor. As soon as I got to the second floor I noticed a flux of people in the corner. I saw some bee cartoons on the door so of course I immediately wanted to go inside. I saw a three story observatory bee hive with live bees inside, I was amazed that they had them in this room and they even had a entrance/exit to the outside where the bees were coming and going with pollen and nectar. I could not find the queen however after looking for a good 20 minutes I had no success in locating her, I did however, share some of my bee knowledge with some younger observers standing next to me. I even witnessed a waggle dance happening in the observation hive (video to the left). A Waggle Dance is particular figure-eight dance of the honey bee. By performing this dance, successful foragers can share information about the direction and distance to patches of flowers yielding nectar and pollen, to water sources, or to new nest-site locations with other members of the colony. To learn more about the waggle dance: Click Here
Not only did they have this amazing display built into the room, but they also had a langstroth hive with frames inside, and on each frame there was information showing the stages of life of the honey bee. I thought that this was the coolest thing!
We made our way to the top floor and to my surprise they had a life size sculpture of brood cells and honey bees on top. I was amazed at the detail and the size of these sculptures. They even had two insect heads for kids to stick their heads in for pictures. But it wasn’t all about the bees, they had a ton of information about insects and pollinators loaded with pictures, facts and interactive displays. I was very impressed with all the information they had here not only to educate kids but also adults!
For more information on The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences Visit: https://naturalsciences.org/