Bees: Are they worth the trouble???

Friend Isabelle asks whether the quantity of honey harvested justifies the work involved. That's an easy question. The answer is "no." This is my third year keeping bees but the first one that allowed me to harvest honey. Beekeeping is about much more than the honey. Sure, the honey is a sweet reward, but the real payoff has been in the learning about bees, manipulating and watching the bees, observing what's blooming, and becoming much more aware about the vanishing clover and alfalfa fields while corn and soybeans take over (due to the false demand being created through stilted government incentives). It is a real adrenalin rush to open the hive and be surrounded by tens of thousands of bees! It is fun being a local folk hero. Friends like Isabelle give me bee jewelry, bee books, clippings about bees, bee bumper stickers, etc., etc.

Getting started in beekeeping was quite a bit of work: researching types of equipment, lots of boxes to assemble, stuff to order, lots of reading to do, consulting with other beekeepers, finding sources to buy bees from. And, it was expensive. To get the equipment for a couple of hives was probably about $700. If I had it all to do all over again, I would take a short beekeeping course first, but I could not find one locally that didn't conflict with Masterworks rehearsals. Oh well...

My first year, I ordered what are called package bees. You order them online (usually 3 pounds of bees) and they arrive a few weeks later in the mail. Did you know that post-office workers arrive at work around 6:30 am? I know this because that's when they call you to tell you to come and pick up your bees! I guess they don't like to have buzzing boxes around very long. So, the box is somewhat smaller than, say, a standard encyclopedia volume. It's screened on two sides and the queen is in a matchbox-sized box inside the larger one. The first thing you do is spray the screened sides with sugar water to cool the bees and provide them with some nutrition. Then, you get to don your new bee suit and veil and shake the bees inside the new hive boxes. If all goes well, they will venture out and start to find nectar sources and build new honeycomb in the hive. Worst case scenario: the bees abscond, meaning they fly off in search of better quarters....

Well, it's getting late now and I am getting cross-eyed from staring at computer screens all day. More info tomorrow. Stay tuned to My bees 'n' me!