"They are," Joy confirmed. "Every single day. Want to see how they do it?"
They walked to the bee yard together, Tommy and Jake between Andre and Joy. Andre felt Joy's contentment through their bond, her quiet joy at sharing this with his entire family.
"Which hive should we visit first?" Joy asked Tommy.
Tommy studied the rows with the seriousness of a general surveying troops. "That one," he pointed to a hive in the middle row. "It looks friendly."
Joy lit the smoker, explaining each step to the boys, who absorbed every word. When she opened the hive, Tommy took a sharp breath.
"There's so many," he whispered.
"About sixty thousand in this hive," Andre said, watching his nephew's eyes go wide with wonder.
"That's more bees than people in our whole neighborhood!" Tommy said.
Joy lifted a frame heavy with honey, angling it so Tommy could see the perfect hexagonal cells. "See how they build? Each cell exactly the same size."
"They're like tiny architects," Tommy said. "Can they see me?"
"They can," Andre assured him.
From outside the bee yard, Lucy clapped her hands at the gentle buzzing sound. Jake had spotted the goats and tugged on Andre's hand.
"Goats! Can we pet them?"
"Of course," Joy said, helping him out of the bee suit.
The goat pen erupted in excited bleating as they approached. Fifteen dairy goats pressed against the fence, hoping for treats and attention.
"They're so loud!" Jake laughed, while Lucy pointed and babbled excitedly.
"They're saying hello," Joy explained, producing scoops of grain from a bucket. "Hold your hand out flat - see how I'm doing it? That way their soft lips can pick up the grain without accidentally getting your fingers."
Tommy went first, reaching through the fence. When Clementine's soft lips tickled his palm, his delighted laughter rang across the yard.
"That's Clementine," Joy explained to the others. "She's our herd queen. The brown one is Butterscotch, and the black and white one is Marigold."
Jake was next, giggling when Snowball's rough tongue licked his palm clean. Even Lucy got a turn, though she needed Cliff to hold her securely while a gentle doe named Primrose carefully took grain from her tiny fist.
"Goat!" Lucy declared proudly, her first clear word of the visit.
"That's right, sweetheart," Megan said, kissing her daughter's head. "What sound do goats make?"
"Baa!" all three kids chorused, sending the adults into laughter.
After the goat feeding, they headed toward Joy's workshop.
"This is where I make soap and candles," Joy said, producing a key. "Want to see where the magic happens?"
The workshop's LED panels flooded the space with clean light. Tommy and Jake stepped inside with wide eyes.
"It smells like flowers and cookies," Tommy announced.
"That's the lavender and vanilla," Joy explained, leading them to the candle-making station. "See these molds? I pour hot waxmixed with scents into them, and when it cools, it becomes a candle."
She showed them jars of finished candles, letting each child smell the different scents. Jake declared Pine Forest smelled like Christmas. Tommy said Honeysuckle Bloom reminded him of the community garden. Lucy just giggled and tried to grab everything within reach.
"And over here is where I make soap," Joy continued, moving to the soap-making area. "I use milk from our goats, honey from our bees, and oils from plants."
