What I’ve found expecially interesting and difficult is just understanding the bees, beginning to become comfortable with their rhythms and of course, having them comfortable with me, things you can’t really teach. There’s a great deal of this activity that you simply have to experience.

– Patricia Butler

It’s funny how many beekeepers I’ve met and talked to recently who don’t actually eat very much honey. And I don’t eat very much honey. My whole reason for bees is more because I love bees and I want to have a place for them and I love having them in my backyard. I just love, I LOVE calling myself a beekeeper! So I don’t need to be really aggressive about having a huge harvest from them.

– Suzanne Connolly Howes

When you take the lid off of that box there’s a kind of benevolence that comes from it. Just the amount of food they make, their generosity . . . is really kind of astounding. They’re just so sisterly and I think that really comes through in their work and in their presence and in their energy.

– Julie Finley

This spring our pussy willow was blooming and it was covered, completely covered with bees . . . and it was beautiful. At that point they were so busy getting the pollen . . . that they weren’t bothering me at all. It’s different from being in the hive. If you open up their hive they can get made at you. They’ll buzz around you and try and bug you to get you out of there. But when you’re right next to a tree with a lot of bees they’re so busy doing their work that they don’t bother you at all.

– Mery Molenaar

I’m a beekeeper. Um hmm… The bees keep me.

– Marge McLellan

I’m a gardener. I came to the bees from the garden, you know, just wanted to know more about pollination. I don’t ever remember not wanting to keep bees.

– Julie Finley