Some of the hardest lessons, the best lessons, have come from making dumb mistakes.

– Patricia Butler

I didn’t know anything about bees and I was scared about getting stung because as a kid I had kicked a yellow jacket nest and I had gotten probably a hundred stings on my body. I was actually really nervous about getting in and working them the first time because I didn’t know what they would do. I wore two pairs of pants, a long turtleneck, another shirt and then the suit and I died because I was really hot!

But I didn’t get stung. And I got fascinated looking at them.

– Suzanne Connolly Howes

My dad was a beekeeper. He had been a beekeeper way before I was born and still kept bees as I was growing up. I remember bees in the backyard because I remember being stung once. I put a bouquet of flowers in my pocket and got stung. It was pretty painful but it always stuck with me.

– Ruth Eastman

It’s wonderful to see . . . life!

– Mery Molenaar

I’ve always been interested in bees as pollinators, but when we lived in the city I didn’t think I had to worry that much about them. When we moved out here it was my intention to plant fruit trees. So in the back of my mind I thought it would be important to keep bees.

– Patricia Butler