Tim and I are visiting New Orleans. I came for work, and then we stayed a few extra days to see what we could see. We took a trip along the Mississippi today, stopping along the way to see the old plantation houses that have finally been given up by private owners to become tourist attractions. Most of the way, we just took a peak at the houses from the road--it is ungodly hot and humid here--but twice we stopped and had a closer look around. One of the houses we stopped at was called Houmas, and we got a little bee surprise there.
Among the sugar cane fields and oil refineries we passed, there seemed to be plenty of open space where bee hives would thrive, but we hadn't seen any, which made us curious. Then, we entered the Houmas plantation gift shop, and saw quart-sized jars of Houmas honey for sale! As we walked through the gorgeous grounds (they had a water feature with gigantic three-foot-wide lilly pads!), we eventually found a gardener and asked where the honey came from. He said that the hives were on the grounds a little way off, but that there was another hive right on the front lawn. Puzzled that we couldn't see any bee boxes, we followed our guide onto the lawn where he led us right up to a huge live oak that had a big knot about ten feet up that was crawling with bees! The gardener said that the colony had been there about 10 years and that it swarmed from time to time. VERY exciting to know that there are feral bees doing so well in the world!
The gardener told us a story about the bees getting into the walls of one of the outbuildings and filling its 16-foot long walls with honeycomb. When they knocked that building down, they found enormous combs full of honey! On leaving the estate, we noticed about 25 Langstroth hive boxes a few acres away from the main house. We haven't figured out if the bees down here are Africanized. The ones we saw at Houmas plantation seemed gentle enough. But then I'm not sure if even bees could get too fired up in this hot, sticky Louisiana weather!
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| Houmas Plantation, Louisiana |
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| Very kind gardener who took the time to show us the resident bee hive. |
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| Bee hive in a live oak at Houmas Plantation. |
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| Bee hive close up |
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| HUGE lilly pads! |
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