We had a great time with our first hands-on experience in a bee yard today. It felt very natural and we were very calm.

Getting the smoker going to use to calm the bees.

Getting to examine up close for the things we learned about in bee school.

They did sugar shake tests to check for mites. They gather some bees in a jar, pour in powdered sugar, let them settle for a few minutes and then turn the jar upside down and shake the mites out through the screen onto a white surface and count. The sugar makes the mites fall off. Depending on the number of mites, you may have to do a mite treatment of your choice.

Here are the sugared bees returning to the hive. One of the powdered ones stung me on my finger while I was taking this photo. I scraped the stinger off. It only hurt for about five minutes or so, swelled for a little while and then returned to normal. No big deal. Glad it happened.

As usual, the kids were pretty much fearless.

The girls with their “butts” in the air are on cleaning duty, getting the cells ready for the queen to lay new eggs.

And then there is the queen of queens, totally immersed.