Denny's Bees

I hadn't heard anything of Denny for a few years. I posted about Denny on April 1 2012, and for a year or so following that I had a fair bit of contact, helping him with his bees and talking to him on the phone and at my house where he visited to talk a few times. He was obsessed with his bees. I tried to tell him to relax about it and leave them alone, there was no need to be checking on on them all the time and worrying.

I told Denny I was going out of beekeeping. I was tired of the workload that came at inconvenient timing to me with my other commitments, and frankly the task of extracting honey when I was not geared for it was onerous and after so many years of it at weekends when I was tired and needed a rest, I had had enough.

A couple of weeks ago there was a message on my phone from a lady who sounded young asking me would I be interested in taking the honey from 3 triple beehives for a price, and what would that be? Of course I was curious and I rang back and talked to Marta who explained her father had suffered a heart attack and was in hospital waiting for bypass surgery and he was anxious about his bees. I asked how did she get on to me and it dawned that she was Denny's daughter and Denny had given her my number. I said I wanted no payment and would help gratis given the circumstances.

I arranged to go there and meet Marta and see what equipment was there in terms of replacement frames etc. I had no interest in doing the extracting, I'm well and truly over getting sticky and mucking about straining honey. Marta said she and her mother and her daughter could handle that but they couldn't get the honey from the bees, they did not know how to do it and besides that Marta was allergic to bee stings. So Saturday two weeks ago I went to Denny's place in Gembrook and met Marta and her mother Ivanna whom I remembered from my previous visits. Denny was supposed to have been operated on the day before but it was postponed and rescheduled for the next Monday.

Establishing from them that the next Saturday would be a good day for them to do the extract, I said I would come in the morning on that day and get the honey off. On the Friday night there was a phone message from Ivanna asking could we postpone it for a week, Denny was in recovery from the operation and was in a bad way and they were visiting him every day to try and lift his morale which had dived.

So we did it today instead. As I pulled in half an hour after I said I would be there a ghostly figure appeared. It was Denny. Pale and drawn and a lot thinner than I remembered him. He had the old ride on mower and trailer rigged up, loaded with boxes and frames and all sorts of unnecessary clobber and we headed to the first beehive with Marta and Ivanna following. The hive was strong and I took a box off the top quickly. Marta and I began walking to he next location and Ivanna was to drive the mower but she did not follow and we went back. The little machine would not go forward, the belt was slipping and smoke was coming out. I wen to get my van but Denny came down and told us how to get it moving- put it in reverse and go back a metre then go forward.

I drove it the couple of hundred metres past the big dam/lake to the site of the other two hives. Marta said she would sit in the shade and watch, she had lost fear of the bees watching me with the first hive noticing the bees were not aggressive and made no attempt to sting me. Just the same i was worried that an errant bee may fly into her hair and sting her, and with her allergy that was something frankly I had no desire for. Ivanna was walking around close trying to organise  putting the frames of honey into plastic storage boxes with lids, a system alien to me and a little distracting, but sensible when I think about it. She had a curly head of hair and I was expecting a bee to get stuck in it at any minute and create mayhem.

The beautiful dam

Marta went off to pick blackberries and I got the honey off without incident despite the mix of replacement combs and material. All's well that ends well. Marta picked for me some lovely blackberries to take home and we took the honey back to the house. On leaving Marta was thankful to me and as we talked briefly about work; I asked what her work was. She's doing a doctorate in forensic evidence/medicine? at the coroner's court she said. Her thesis is on preventable deaths in aged care. It is no wonder I had found her a most impressive lady!

The event was a joyful one for me. I like to help people, and the experience seeing Denny and Ivanna's place was most rewarding. They have several acres planted out with all manner of trees and huge dam. A little paradise close to the heart of Gembrook but tucked away where no one would know it was there unless you were lucky like me.

Lovely Marta