Honey farms are a hive of activity, but mistakes made at harvesting can really sting. Deco’s Chris Van Vliet is here with a look.
Oh, hi, honey! Keeping Up With Chris is all about trying out new things and looking fear right in the eye, and I know bees are a major fear for some people. To show they aren’t really as scary as you think, I met up with a few hundred thousand of them in Southwest Ranches.
Goats and cows and horses, oh my!
*Chris feeds horse*
Chris Van Vliet: “Want some? There you go. Oh, yeah.”
My friend Louis Gregory, better known in the entertainment world as Uncle Louie, invited me to his farm in Southwest Ranches to introduce me to the new addition he’s been buzzing about.
Chris Van Vliet: “So why bees?”
Louis “Uncle Louie” Gregory: “Bees are important, right? Not just because of the honey, but they’re important because of the produce that we all love and enjoy.”
While the hives are on Louie’s property, he leaves the beekeeping to the professionals.
Nick Nafpliotis owns GotBeez.com. Not only do they produce fresh honey, they also provide homeowners with free bee removal and relocation instead of extermination.
Chris Van Vliet: “How many bees are in these hives behind us?”
Nick Nafpliotis: “Each hive would consist of anywhere from about 10,000 to 60,000, so we’ve got hundreds of thousands of bees here behind us.”
Chris Van Vliet: “Oh, OK.”
Now, don’t think I’m going in there unprepared.
Nick Nafpliotis: “You’ll be just fine. Let’s go ahead and put this thing on for you.”
Chris Van Vliet: “I’m going to take your word for it.”
Chris Van Vliet: “This might be the worst idea I’ve ever had.”
Chris Van Vliet: “We’re are about to go knock on their door, and they are not going to like this.”
Nick Nafpliotis: “And we’re going to rob their honey.”
Chris Van Vliet: “And we’re going to rob their honey!”
Nick Nafpliotis: “I guess we’re going to go ahead and pop this one open here. What we’re looking at here are all worker bees. We want to make sure that we don’t crush one bee and trigger them to attack.”
Chris Van Vliet: “I want to show you guys a little behind the scenes. “Bee-hind the scenes. See what I did there? My camera guy Tony also has to be suited up in the beekeeper suit!”
*Montage of Chris seeing the bees*
Chris Van Vliet: “So it’s just pull it straight up? This is terrifying, seeing them all this close. Hi, guys. Hey, what are you guys doing? You’re working. I’m working.”
Nick Nafpliotis: They’re working a lot harder than us, I’ll tell you that.”
And here’s what they’re working hard on.
Chris Van Vliet: “Oh, look at it!”
*Chris tries the honey*
Chris Van Vliet: “Oh, wow. That’s amazing.”
Nick Nafpliotis: “That’s literally straight from the hive.”
Chris Van Vliet: “Literally.”
That honey was sooo good.
So what should I do next? Give me a buzz at KeepingUpWithChris@wsvn.com.
Guess how many times I got stung: zero! Although when we got there, we didn’t have the beekeeper suits on yet, and our camera guy tony was like 100 feet away from the hives getting some video. One rogue bee came out and stung him in the side of the head, and we were like, “OK, it’s time to put those suits on now!”
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