Now, tell me, who would be crazy enough to don a white jumpsuit, galoshes and veiled headgear, and mount an offensive campaign against tens of thousands of irate honey-bees — in the rain? Who but Dad and Katelyn, our intrepid amateur bee-keepers! My level of involvement consisted of documenting the battle on film — holding a leaky umbrella under one arm, plowing through dripping wet, knee-high weeds, weighing in my mind the delicate balance of good photo/face swollen with bee stings for church tomorrow (thank heavens for 135mm zoom and ten megapixels!).

Katelyn pulls on her leather gloves. What thoughts run through her mind as she steels herself to meet the roiling masses of incensed insects?

Preparing to enter enemy territory; Katelyn grips her Smoker, the apiarist’s secret weapon (it has a pacifying effect on the bees–get the scientific info here).

Removing a honey super

Removing a frame of honey from a super (each super holds about nine frames)

Before the frames full of honey can be transferred to empty supers and placed inside the van, the bees must be gently brushed away from the honey-comb.

A tense moment: Dad thinks there’s a bee in his bonnet! Oh, false alarm! Whew!

Clover (one of a bee’s “favorite foods”) growing nearby the hives

Clouds of bees, jealous of their honey!

A frame literally dripping with bees!

A sunny yellow flower, its leaves dripping with rain, contrasts noticeably with the dull gray atmosphere all around.

Click on the image above for a large, detailed photo of two brave souls — and thousands of ferocious honey bees! Extremely squeamish individuals are cautioned to take a deep breath… Bee-keeping is not for the faint of heart.

Transferring the bee-free supers of honey to the basement, our honey-extracting headquarters!

Dad takes a honey sample for testing with the refractometer (a device used to measure the honey’s moisture content).

Dad holds the refractometer up to the light to view the moisture content reading.

Our honey’s moisture content is too high for Dad’s liking (19.5%, as compared to the desired 17.8%), so we’ll have to let it dry out a bit (using a portable heater) before completing the honey harvesting process. Extraction and bottling photos in Part II!