I Done It

I did it and I survived.

Not only that it was fun!

[Photo - me wearing my first bee beard.  Behind is John Heimstra my beard groomer].

Wearing the beard was a real awesome experience.

They put the queen in a queen cage and tie it around your neck.  Then my "groomer" would shake frames onto newspaper.

Next he'd pour the bees from the newspaper to my cupped waiting hands.

Slowly the bees would migrate up around the neck where the queen is.

I got two stings during the grooming.  One on the top of the head and one on the thigh.  But my groomer got 10+ stings.

The bees weren't very happy.  John got stung so much that we had to stop.

The rules are you only get 20 minutes to pour bees and we heard from the crowds that others had many more bees on them than I did.

Photo - Daryl - the winner, he's a hobby beekeeper too.

The quality of the experience relies a great deal on having an experienced groomer.

Fans and paparazzi watch from the safety outside the screening.

My sister, Dad, Ben my nephew and beekeeping friend Janice got into the fun and posed with beards too.....

the cardboard cut out kind which were completely stingless!

Jordan is pretty young but very brave.

This was his first bee beard competition and he won the crowd favourite, voted by lots of loud cheering.

Earlier in the week we had a surprise.  My nephew ( brother's son) from Australia showed up in Canada.

He was toting an engagement ring with plans to finally propose to his Canadian girlfriend.  She said yes :) 

He's picture below along with my niece Amber (sister's daughter).

It was a very hot day with temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius.

I liberally applied water to my head to keep cool.

Of course wearing 2.8 lbs of bees will make you warm too.

We danced down the straw runway and posed for photos.  After the competition the crowds would come up to take pictures with us.

Still no more stings.  The beard was stable and the bees just hung on.

photo - Ben and Amber.

The groomer puts vaseline along the chin.  It acts as a barrier that the bees don't cross and keeps them on the chin.

Other competitors stuffed their ears with cotton.  I didn't but many bees were over my ear and they did buzz loudly... but still no stinging.

I got a free t-shirt as well so of course it was well worth doing just for that :)

Now removing the beard, well that'll be my next blog message.

Look below for more photos....