After months of study, you finally take the plunge and buy your very first wooden hive. You sand the sweet-smelling boards until they feel like silk beneath your fingers. You browse the paint aisle of your local home improvement store and spend far too much money, buying colors that spark your imagination, colors with names […] Read more
In the 2003 romantic comedy, Love Actually, there’s a scene where Juliet (Keira Knightley) visits her husband’s best friend, Mark (Andrew Lincoln), to borrow a video tape of her wedding. Although everyone believes Mark doesn’t like Juliet, the video reveals otherwise. In the awkward scene that follows, Mark admits, “It’s a self-preservation thing.” He uses […] Read more
A recent discussion on this site segued from start-up costs to the age of beekeepers, so I thought I would toss in my two cents. I believe the reason so many beekeepers are older is simply a combination of finances and decreasing responsibility for children. Time and money. End of theory. If you don’t have […] Read more
I can be naïve at times, so when I was asked to write an article about “why women are better beekeepers” I said sure, no problem. After all, the hardest part of writing is finding a topic. But in truth, the assignment turned into a nightmare. My first mistake was thinking it would be fun. […] Read more
I am Scrooge, the beekeeper. The Scrooge part of me stays pretty well hidden until someone remarks, “Ask ten beekeepers and you will get twelve different answers!” This statement turns me to stone. I know better than to respond because what I would say isn’t friendly. What I would like to say is either, “Well, […] Read more
If you want to buy a gift for a special beekeeper, make sure it is something he or she can actually use. To do that, you need to consider the personality of the recipient. For example, I’m pretty much disinclined to things that advertise my bees. I like to keep my hives off the radar, […] Read more
When we were undergraduate students in Corvallis, Oregon, my husband and I used to invite random people over for Thanksgiving dinner. Whoever didn’t have a place to go for the holiday was welcome to share the meal and join the small talk. As nearly penniless students far from our families, it was one of the […] Read more