It’s all very fascinating
There is a lot of learning. Some of it is kind of humbling. Some of it’s humiliating. But it’s all very fascinating and the longer I do it the more engaged I become.
– Patricia Butler
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Biggest head-scratcher
This year has been the biggest head-scratcher for beekeeping for me in all the years I’ve bee-kept. One hive started strong and ended stronger. Another hive started weak and stayed weak. And I re-queened it. I went through it. I looked. I kept finding eggs and everything looked fine. I’d close it up, I’d look again. It made two frames of honey. That is all. I have no idea.
– Suzanne Connolly Howes
Weird? I don’t think so
People say that beekeepers are weird but I don’t think so. No, the beekeepers I know are actually all very different.
– Mery Molenaar
Just from the garden
I don’t ever remember not wanting to keep bees. So I can’t really remember how I came to it. It was just from the garden.
– Julie Finley
That’s my one problem
It takes a certain amount of strength. And that’s my one problem because I’m not large. Being a smaller woman, it’s hard but you can figure out ways to do just about all of it.
– Marge McLellan
It transports me backwards
Honey: it transports me backwards. I can’t even explain it. It all tastes differently depending on what kind of flower sources are used. Whatever my bees have is what tastes really good to me.
– Ruth Eastman
Having them comfortable with me
What I’ve found exceptionally interesting and difficult is just understanding the bees and beginning to be comfortable with their rhythms, and of course having them comfortable with me. And finding the queen; things you can’t really teach. There is a great deal of this activity that you simply have to experience.
– Patricia Butler
The flowers are very clever
I started walking around the farm and noticing that at ten in the morning they were in the eucalyptus tree. And at two in the afternoon they were in the garden with the raspberries. And I started realizing that flowers flower at different times. Which makes perfect sense for the bees because if the flowers all flowered at the same time their pollination would get messed up. So the flowers are very clever and the bees follow that.
– Suzanne Connolly Howes
As long as they don’t see me as too much of a threat
I use some smoke to quiet them down before I even open it up. I don’t use a whole lot of it. Most of the time the bees will just be busy doing their thing. They don’t really want to bother me. And as long as they don’t see me as too much of a threat, they won’t.
– Mery Molenaar
Harvesting nectar, making wax
They’re harvesting nectar and they’re making wax. Find somebody else who’s putting less negative energy in the world and I’ll give you a dollar.
– Julie Finley
Heroine of this tribe
I think she looks beautiful. She’s like the heroine of this tribe.
– Ruth Eastman
Fed up
They’re getting a little mad now. Can you hear that? They’re getting loud. Fed up with me bugging them.
– Mery Molenaar
In the moment
If you can be in the moment once in a while you actually can get lost in it.
– Patricia Butler
The queen is moving
The queen is moving and the whole yard is just a cloud of bees and I’ve stood in the middle of that and they just go by me.
– Suzanne Connolly Howes
I’m kind of interested in bees
I don’t know if I told you this before, how we inherited the hives? Well, my husband had a friend that he worked with who was transferred to Zaire in Africa. He said, “I’ll give you my two beehives.” So we went over and picked them up. I didn’t know a thing about bees or anything . . . We put the beehives in the back of the truck but we didn’t secure them with any bungee cords or anything around them so they wouldn’t come apart. And of course they came apart. (Fortunately we didn’t go on U.S. 36. We went on the back roads.) But by the time we got here the cab of the truck was just full of bees. I jumped out and they came in the house right away. He (my husband) came in and soon we found out he was allergic to bees because he was swollen all over and it was bad. We had to go to the doctor and everything. Se we just sort of ignored the beehives that were out there and we didn’t do anything. He didn’t get near them.
After he passed away I thought, hmm . . . I’m kind of interested in bees. So I started becoming more interested in reading about them. And then I had a friend that was a beekeeper and that was how I just started learning.
– Marge McLellan
Beautiful creatures in the garden
They’re such beautiful creatures in the garden. When you watch them on the sunflower, or you just watch what they’re doing, they’re really intent and focused . . . They’re benevolent when you’re working with them.
– Julie Finley
I wanted to know more about it
I knew very, very little about beekeeping . . . And I did not know any beekeepers when I was growing up. But I just thought it was fascinating and I had the time and wanted to know more about it. It’s been a wonderful experience.
– Mery Molenaar
Something new
I didn’t know any beekeepers when I was growing up. I just thought it was fascinating and I had the time and I wanted to know more about it. I wanted to learn something new.
– Mery Molenaar
Always learning
Last year I had both hives swarm. This year I thought, I won’t make that mistake. But I’m still learning. And I’m sure I always will.
– Patricia Butler
They’re such amazing animals
My career is teaching environmental science . . . and of all the programs I’ve ever created, the one that I know has the most impact on people is the bee program because they’re such amazing animals. It helps draw people out of themselves and into an awareness and appreciation of something else.
– Suzanne Connolly Howes