Researching Beehives: Hands On Experience with a Sting

             I wish I could say I did it on a dare.  I wish I could say that someone "made" me do it.  But alas, I cannot use peer pressure for this one, I decided to visit a location that housed at least forty beehives all on my own.  Chalk it up to stupidity and the need for a learning experience.
   Jim and I have been planning on getting a hive of our own for the last few months.  I had been preparing to write an article on the beekeeper who rents an area on the family farm, so he suggested that we go for a visit so I could see the hives, get some pictures, and we could plan for our own.  The perfect storm, so to speak, for an adventure doomed to failure.
    Here's where I got naive.  I had lived on his family's farm for a year, but never saw the hives.  And since we moved, I hadn't ventured on long walk there in about three years.  On top of that, my experience with hives was always in the city.  When someone showed me their hive, it was precisely that, a hive or two.  The bees came and went and we could get relatively close without getting stung. 
    Before we set out on our journey, I already knew the background.  Our honey always comes to us as rent for the small area under a very large oak packed with hives by a small stream.  The placement is the result of a suave business deal by Jim's father and uncle.  A beekeeper approached a neighbor to place hives on his land in the middle of his fields, but the neighbor, not wanting the hives close to his house turned him down.  The beekeeper then approached our family, and the hives were placed on the family farm, closer to the neighbor's house than if the hives were on his land.
    The land that the hives are on is now a protected wetland,but was formerly planted in corn and alfalfa.  Now the field is wild, with tall grasses, wild flowers, and poison ivy.   And bees.  All I heard in the story was small area and small stream.  Naturally I assumed only a few hives.  We strolled through the grasses, admiring the catnip, mint, and raspberries until we arrived at the enclosure.  I was carefree and looking forward to the excellent pictures I was sure to get.  I had never seen so many bees before in my life.
    Apparently the beekeeper has just naturally allowed the hives to divide over the many years and just adds the boxes as he needs them.  I was suddenly and inexplicably filled with fear.  I had never been stung before in my life, and now all I could think about was every horror film I had ever seen that had bees.  I knew that the bees would leave me alone if I just stayed calm.  It's not in their best interest to sting me.  So I started taking pictures from a relatively safe distance.  At one point, I had my head down and a bee got caught between my hair and my forehead.  BAM!  She got me.  I freaked out.  I think I would've made Tippi Hedren's performance in The Birds look tame.  I had visions of thousands of bees attacking because of their fallen comrade.  One of their ranks wasn't coming home tonight, and it was my fault.  Although it took a stern talking to from Jim, I finally got myself under control enough to repair to the homestead.
    Although I'm still a little nervous when I hear buzzing (and a week later I still have a good sized bump on my forehead), we are planning on building our bee homes this weekend.  One hive I can handle, forty, I leave that for Winnie the Pooh.