MEET THE BEEKEEPER
I never thought I would be interested in bees in any other way than knowing they produce honey. A neighbor who had a couple hives gave me a book to read one winter and by the spring I had decided this would be my new obsession. I ordered 2 nucleus colonies and a bunch of hive parts and got started. By the end of the first year I had 6 hives and by the end of the second year close to 20. I would consider myself a hobbyist beekeeper as I have a relatively small number of hives compared to a commercial beekeeper. In fact, I don’t know if I’d ever want to do things on a commercial scale because the joy of working the hives and being with the bees would probably be lost. I absolutely love being in my bee yards. Watching all the ways the bees are interacting with each other and seeing them bringing in pollen or fending off predators – it’s a meditation for me. I never knew how organized, intelligent and adaptive these bees are. I’m constantly in awe about how they do everything they do. The more I learn about them the more amazed I am.