Beekeeping in Speedos

This July 4th weekend Brendan and I had the enormous pleasure of staying in a beautiful Upstate NY ranch house called Rockcreek Farm in the verdant woods of Coxsackie, New York. I know what you are thinking, great name for a town. Well, one of their main streets is called Climax. Yeah, I'm serious. Anyways, imagine a gorgeous 19th century two-story farmhouse amidst hundreds of acres of rolling green hills, a beautiful pond, heated swimming pool, beautiful forest and the glorious sounds of nature surrounding us in a cacophony of serenity. It was amazing, thanks to the lovely wonderful beekeeping couple Douglass and Matthew, two of the nicest, sweetest and most popular gays in all of Upstate NY. They shared their house, their food, their pool, and their fascinating beekeeping hobby. They own and tend to over 60,000 bees and temporarily allowed us into their wonderful world. I just so happened to take some photos of this weekend below.

Rockcreek Farm driveway.

The Rockcreek Farm house.

Rockcreek Farm toolshed

Rockcreek Farm Pond.

Rockcreek Farm pool with Brendan and Matthew in background.

Me cooling off.

The beekeepers descend. (Douglas and Matthew)

Are they beekeepers or is this a sequel to the movie Outbreak.

The two colonies of bees over 60,000 bees total

Inside the beehive.

Brendan the bumblebee.

One of the frames containing beeswax cells and many bees.

Closer look at the beehive frame.

Douglas the happy beekeeper looking for the queen. 

(It takes one to know one)

No more beekeeping suits left, so I had to wing it. 

Luckily I had on protective speedos.

Who doesn't love honey?

The larger queen-bee below, taking a break from laying 1500 eggs a day, phew!

(She is being surrounded by her servants in the lower central portion of the photo)