Touristing

Since my family is here and they haven't shown quite as much as interest in sweating profusely under the sun as I have, we went and did some tourist-y stuff today in Ocho Rios.

We went to a local art/craft fair, and I picked up this sweet, dorky bag. They got some souvenirs and snacks from the supermarket, and then we had lunch at a jerk chicken restaurant nearby. I mean, you can't really visit Jamaica and not try some jerk chicken.

Then, we went on a serious adventure into the bush looking for a river tubing guide. Jimmy, a local driver who was taking us there, was very patient and we were able to find it after much searching. And the tubing was fun - a 45-minute, three mile float down a cool river. The guides were friendly and all, but they insisted on singing and making crazy jokes the whole time, which kind of took away from the beauty and relaxing environment of the river for me. Otherwise, the whole day was a success. And, as a bonus, Kwao had a productive day building a hive stand and setting it up, even without me.

Attack of the Killer Bees

It's been a while since we fed any bees, so today we made the trek up to the farm to feed two hives. One, affectionately (or maybe not so affectionately) dubbed "the mean hive," and another that was our first real attempt at a top bar hive. We decided to feed the mean hive first, since we don't really like them. They have pretty strong defensive mechanisms, and ever since we've gotten them they've been difficult to manage. Plus, they like to sting, and stung me straight through my jeans once.

Kwao removed the cover and went to crack open the back top bars to access the feeder, while I stood by with the sugar water. Two things happened at once - one, Kwao realized that the back bars actually had comb on them. Two, every single bee on or near that comb immediately attacked us. Kwao had about 20 stingers in his gloves right away, and I was covered in bees trying to sting my pants and shoes. Thankfully, we had properly suited up for this feeding.

Anyway, we basically took off. We had to brave the bees once more to replace the cover, but that was the end of working with the bees today. We settled for eating some guineps and going home instead.

A fun plus: my family arrived this morning to visit me and came to see the bees today, so now I'm going to spending the rest of the trip convincing them that this is not at all a normal experience. Oops.

Bat Shit Cray

One of our side activities here is farming (plants, not bees). Part of being successful in that is fertilizing our plants because the soil in Jamaica is extremely clay-y. We start the plants in the red soil and transplant them later, but when we move them they need a lot of fertilizer because the poor soil we move them to shocks them. (Fun fact: Jamaica exports this red soil to make aluminum foil).

One main fertilizer we use is guano - bat shit! I had used it to plant before, but today we went to the caves where the rat bats live to harvest it. In Jamaica, bats are called "rat bats" while these big black moths are just "bats." We climbed into this tiny hole in the stone into a wall, which opened up into a larger cave. It was amazing! We filled several bags with the bat poop, and walked back home, where we promptly went to the beach and washed it all off.

Bat cave! 

Also: I got stung, again, bringing my total count up to 3.

Hurricane Bee

Okay, it's not really Hurricane Bee. It's not even a hurricane, really. It's Ernesto, a tropical storm south of Jamaica. However, Jamaica is a small island and even small storms on the other side of the island can have an effect here. It's been super windy during the day, and super stormy at night. Last night, the wind blew open the door on our house and a few windows!

However, the fact that a tropical storm/hurricane is here has not changed our plans regarding bees. Yesterday, we took down a super exciting hive - it was completely exposed! A stranger had shown us where the hive was, and we started by using a chainsaw to cut down the hive. As expected, it landed pretty hard and the bees were not pleased. This time, we were prepared & suited up!
This was probably my favorite hive. I was tying comb into the frames while Dee and Kwao were cutting up comb and searching for the queen. Dee found her, which was a first! Normally Kwao is queen-finding expert.

Then today we took down a similar hive, but with many more challenges. I spotted the queen (another first!) and we thought that was it, but the hive had been preparing to swarm, so the queen I saw was the new queen. There was another queen up in the branches of the tree, and most of our attempts to get her out ended up with bees raining down on us. Eventually we got her and many other bees into a trap hive, but the top bars were crooked and we just didn't feel good about it, so we raced home to eat dinner and build a new hive for them. We went back to put them in the new hive, but unfortunately were unable to find the queen. The bees were all fanning the entrance, which is a good sign.

So we ended up with two hives today, instead of one! It seems like a fair trade off for a bucket of honey and the sting on my finger, which has gotten more swollen since then, making this post much harder to write.

Some Other Shenanigans

Not everything I do here revolves around bees. Last week, Dee, Kwao, Tom and I went on a hike to Black Sand Beach and the waterfall nearby. The sand is black due to the volcanic rock. I actually took some pictures this time!

Along the trail

Goats along the trail! We also saw a donkey but I didn't take a picture :(

These are some old Spanish ruins in the forest.

Walking along Black Sand

Here Dee and I at Black Sand. I totally stole this picture from her blog.

The waterfall! It's huge! You can see Kwao off to the right, and he's 6'8"!

We also go on some other adventures! Kwao and I went to the Kingston Market last week. It's basically a giant farmer's market, with lots of stalls for all kinds of food.

Seeing my money in Jamaican dollars makes me feel rich. 

A few days ago, we went up to the farm to cut up a tree into boards, and here's how we got home:

 Every day in Jamaica is an adventure, that's for sure.