Bee Happy and Good.

Yesterday my lovely little wife and I rented bicycles and rode through country roads until the lovely little town of Radovlica, Slovenia. We rode the 8 kilometers ( 5'ish miles) for one reason and one reason only: The Slovenian Museum of Beekeeping!!! 

A few little facts you may or may not have known about bees:

1. There can be up to 80,000 in one colony alone.

2. 85 percent of bees are female but only one is queen. If the queen gives birth to another queen, she gathers a following of bees and leaves to find a new hive. 

3. Bees tell other bees about good flowers by coming back to the hive and walking in circles and making squeaking noises; by this others somehow know where to go. 

4. Each bee has a certain and very specific job: Travelers/gatherers, harvesters or babysitters, air ventilators (these guys sit by the entrance of the hive and flap there wings all day), and then of course there is the queen who gives birth to 2,000 some odd eggs A DAY!!! that sounds like the toughest job of the lot. 

The museum had there own hive right in the room, then there was a little tunnel they could leave to go collect nectar and pollen. It was really fun to watch them all work. 

 Here is an example of horrible father who built his daughter a doll house/beehive. Needless to say she didn't play dolls with it too often.

 While looking at the display hive Wendy found the queen, she told us she " You think having 4 children is hard, try having 5,000!!!)

 These beehives also doubled as scarecrows in the Slovenian meadows and fields, although if you ask me I think they went to China and stole one of the Terra Cotta Warriors.

                                      
 These are painted fronts to the bee homes. Can you believe it that bees can actually distinguish their home from others by the picture found on the front of the box. I thought that was kinda crazy.

A beautiful bee house located in a beautiful meadow, you can see how big they actually are. Slovenians take beekeeping very seriously and we have seen so much honey for sale on the side of the roads. Wendy will most likely get some, however with her honey addiction, it won't last very long.