Bees....Again!

While in graduate school years ago, I indulged one of my childhood fantasies and kept bees for two or three years. Living in town and having a very small yard and very small children, I really had no place for them, so I put them on top of my flat-roofed garage.

The experience was fabulous. The honey my bees made was the best I've tasted, probably because unlike mono-cropped commercial bees, mine foraged on a wide variety of interesting species. They were amazing to watch too. Apart from having to chase and capture a couple of swarms in the spring on one occasion (a little unnerving) and, on another occasion, being stung quite badly on a hot and dry day, it was all very sweet.

Now I'm determined to do it again. I've considered bees before, but was leery of the various bee-spoilers like mites and colony collapse which have arisen in the time since I originally had bees. Now, however, I think I'm set to go again for a couple of reasons.

The mite situation just is what it is. Most beekeepers I talk to say you have to medicate. The good news is that there are a number of effective natural substances (mostly essential oils) that seem to work.

The colony collapse thing is scarier, but it's just as much of a reason to keep bees for me as it is a reason to not keep bees. For whatever reason, CC seems to not be much of a problem for amateur beekeepers. The commercial outfits have a much harder time with it. My simple interpretation of that (admittedly anecdotal) correlation is that commercial bees are under a lot more pressure due to relocation, honey robbing, etc. and as a result are also more vulnerable to disrupters (disease? poisons?) of any sort. However you want to explain it, the fact is that bees are vital to plant life and if only for selfish reasons, it makes sense to support them in any way we can. Apart from being fun and generating amazing honey, amateur beekeeping may help in some tiny way to make the world safe for pollinators.

So, I've scoped out a nice spot for a couple of hives and, as you may have already read in the water blog, plan to outfit them with a solar roofed shelter.

The last time I did this, it took me about a weekend's work to build the hives from kits and paint them. Getting started was pretty simple. Cost will be a couple hundred dollars. Depending on when queens are available this coming spring, I should be back in bees by mid-April or so.