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Sam Kass: When we first got in the white house,
I met Charlie who was telling me about the bees that he
kept at his house.
Charlie Brandts: It really came to together fast from there and we got
it in here in last March and it's been doing good ever since.
Curators have told me as well that they've researched it
somewhat and they can't find any evidence of a hive here
in the past.
Yea, it's pretty cool to have the first one here for sure.
Sam Kass: Bees are obviously essential to the process of growing food,
being key pollinators.
And so, for kids who are coming to visit the garden to learn
about these topics, it was a great opportunity to show them
the whole -- the whole cycle and process.
So the day we harvested was just a wonderful day
and very exciting.
Charlie started off by smoking the bees out,
which is, you know, old school.
Charlie Brandts: When you put a couple puffs of smoke here at
the entrance of the hive it causes the guard bees to not
be able to communicate as well because a lot of the
communication in the hive is by the sense of smell.
Sam Kass: I mean there's something a little disconcerting about
being surrounded about thousands and thousands of bees.
Charlie Brandts: There's probably at least 700,000 bees in this hive.
Sam Kass: He pulled out each tray of comb and they blew off
all the bees from each tray.
Charlie Brandts: You just blow them on out of there and they
fly on back up into the hive.
The first harvest we did last year, we did it pretty
early, we pulled out 12 capped frames.
Sam Kass: And then brought that into the White House and
when we got in here, just cut open the comb;
just the very top layer.
He puts it in this machine that, with the hand crank,
you spin really fast.
Charlie Brandts: And uses centrifugal force to sling the
honey out of the cells.
So we went ahead and we extracted that way.
Sam Kass: And you end up having a big old bucket of honey.
Charlie Brandts: We go ahead and let it settle for at least a week; I like to.
Gets it nice and clear then after that's been done it's
ready to be put in bottles or containers;
whatever size you want to do.