10:15 a . m . on a sunny day near St . Onge , and Carl and Rowan Crowley are gearing up for work .
On goes the white suit , the veil and the gloves . This reporter suits up as well . Carl notices I ’ m tucking the end of my gloves into the arms of my suit instead of over the arms . He quickly corrects me . He doesn ’ t want me to get stung . I don ’ t want me to get stung either . We walk away from the road into a field where stacks of bee boxes sit , the buzzing of bees growing louder and thicker as we get to the boxes .
The bees aren ’ t aggressive unless provoked , Carl assures me . Foraging bees , he explains , are the ones circling around us . Guard bees are clustered onto the boxes . The bees have assigned jobs within the colony from the moment they are born until they die . Those jobs are all served with the purpose of keeping the queen bee happy .
It just so happens in doing so the bees create a food the vast majority of the population loves , as well as some useful byproducts from which a variety of items can be created .
Carl , a 15-year veteran apiculturist , says he is stung on average six times a day ( not reassuring to this novice beekeeper ) as he uses a smoker to calm the bees before lifting the lid off one of the boxes . The smokers are a key part of beekeeping . It makes the bees feel docile , Carl says , simulating a natural wildfire and turning the bees ’ attention to foraging honey in the hive . It ’ s the human equivalent of a fidget spinner — it turns the bees ’ attention to something else besides the three people invading their hives .
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