# What Got You Into Bees?



## honeybeekeeper (Mar 3, 2010)

When i heard that the bee population was decreasing i wanted to do my part by helping the situation. When i bought my first package and drove home with them in the passengers seat of my jeep everyone thought i was nuts! When i installed my bees i felt a strange bond right then and there. If there was any stress in my body it was released right then and there! And for those who havent tried it, they should get themselves a bee package and im sure they would be stress free!...HAHAHAHA I have since built my own equipment, i have built a OTBH, i have built a bee vac, i have captured a feral swarm and now im interested in learning as much as i can and maybe get into queen rearing later on!...


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## mdaniels (Sep 11, 2009)

I read two of Susan Hubbell's books--A Country Year and A Book of Bees and How to Keep Them. She got me hooked and her books are filled with great information. I kept reading after that and purchased my first hives over the winter and the bees this past spring.


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## FindlayBee (Aug 2, 2009)

I got interested after watching _Silence of the Bees_ on PBS last Summer.


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## Beeslave (Feb 6, 2009)

When my wife and I bought our first home 10 yrs ago their was an abanded apiary with supers and hives stacked up. Everything was void of bees and the next spring a swarm moved into one of the hives. I seen the bees flying in and out so I popped off the top(no smoke, veil, or any protection) and got stung up pretty good. I knew there was an easier way without getting stung up so I did some research and found out a distant relative of mine was a state bee inspector. The story goes from there as I was hooked after working with him a few times. Now honey bees are my livelyhood.


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## theriverhawk (Jun 5, 2009)

My father has had bees since I was 5 years old. I would go with him sometimes when I was young and eventually would help him in the hives. 12 years ago, I decided I wanted to do it too and have something to do with him. At 43 now, and him at 68, it's a joy to talk to him about our bees, flow, swarms, nucs, etc. I'm already including my 3 year old on trip to the bee yards with hopes he will want to do it too someday.


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## junglebee (May 24, 2010)

I did a cutout last year with a snipers veil for a head net and a metal trashcan lid with dried leaves for a smoker. I harvested five gallons of honey, two pounds of wax , via crush & strain and only got stung three times. 
It was my first up close and personal with bees of that amount and I was just amazed , enthralled at there industrious organisation . I knew I had to have them if only just to watch them live and prosper. Honey is a great fringe benefit.


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## ehallspqr (May 2, 2010)

Cool stories. For me it was working on my uncle Tex's commercial bee farm in Lubbock back in the late 60's. Back home in Washington my dad got a couple hives from someone he worked with and I tended those up until I went off to college. Been keeping bee's off and on ever since.


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## alpha6 (May 12, 2008)

The judge said bees or jail...I took bees.


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## PeeVee (Dec 10, 2009)

My Great Grandfather had bees when I was very young; but I don't think that is why.

I considered keeping bees around 1973 or '74 after reading some in "Foxfire 2".

Finally last year we took the plunge and took a class and ordered bees and started reading. One package (died over winter) and one cutout (survivors). Now three from survivor, two more from nucs, and a new cutout from Sunday.

Why? I don't think I'll ever learn enough about these creatures and they seem to be more manageable than cows .


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## mnbob (Nov 7, 2005)

I stumbled upon this website a long time ago. I had to just read and learn because i was at college or in an apartment until 2 years ago. 

It's an amazing hobby, I hope to expand my 2 hives to several more next year.


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## BearHill (Dec 31, 2009)

It was a 1997 article in The Atlantic on honey bees. One day in August that year, I took the magazine with me to a restaurant to read over lunch. By the time I finished reading, I was blown away and knew I'd have to keep bees. Seven years later we moved to a few acres in the country and by spring I had taken a beekeeping class and set up my first hives. (I even remember exactly what I ate for lunch that day.)


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## Kingfisher Apiaries (Jan 16, 2010)

Beekeepers club scholarship. Alpha6 I would take the bees over jail :lookout:


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## erwkkkk08 (Mar 13, 2010)

Third generation beekeeper. Family tradition.


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## bruce todd (May 11, 2010)

I wanted them when I was in my teens (1970's). A good friend had them at his parents farm. I begged. But my mom said no! When I got free I was lucky to meet a great man named Fred Rich. The best beekeeper the world has ever seen, as far as I'm concerned. Read Sue Hubells books and Following The Bloom. Still have them all with the copy of ABC and XYZS of Beekeeping. That Fred gave me 25 years ago. Still got bees too. So that's were I come from.. Everyone should be so lucky. Bruce.............


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## Countryboy (Feb 15, 2009)

My aunt's ex-husband is a college professor who has a PhD in entomology specializing in honeybees, and so I was always hearing about bees whenever they visited.

Various relatives had a few hives. My grandmother's brother had up to 70 hives at one point. Grandma had a hive out by her garden. I was around bees, but never really worked with them.

In my teenage years, we took a vacation and visited my Aunt and Uncle who owned a small 400 hive operation in South Dakota at the time. I got to go out to the yards and help around the honey house for a couple days. This was the first time I ever worked with bees and bee equipment.

3 years ago, a coworker was selling a couple of his dad's hives. His elderly father had a stroke and was unable to care for the hives anymore. I bought the hives and some miscellaneous equipment from him and that's how I got my start owning bees. I'm presently up to 30 some hives, not counting nucs.

I've been around farming my whole life, and enjoy agriculture, but it's difficult to make a go of it farming unless you inherit a farm. It's cost prohibitive to begin dirt farming from scratch. Beekeeping is one area of agriculture that has the potential for you to start from scratch, and build an agricultural operation that can provide a decent living. While I don't know that I want to become a commercial beekeeper, beekeeping does allow me the opportunity to build a nice supplementary income.


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## Wyldbee (Feb 27, 2010)

I have been intrigued about bees and keeping them since I was a teenager. My mom was not keen on the idea so I let it drop. The thoughts lay dormant in my mind until last fall when I was at the Green Festival and I met Christy Hemenway of Gold Star Bees. I liked the simplicity of the hive and her approach to caring for them.

I am so happy I made the choice to have them. They are very fascinating little insects. I enjoy learning about them and could sit and watch them for hours!


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## John V (Jun 7, 2010)

I like honey....

I'm a health nut and try to go organic with everything I eat. I also love nature and everything outdoors. I swapped refined sugar for honey in my diet but I wanted good honey. Not pasturized or whatever they do to the store bought crap. So I added some hives to my garden just this year and am as obsessed with them as I am with all my other hobbies,ie, gardening, camping, martial arts, family....just good wholesome fun.

Later, John


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## HunnyB (May 19, 2010)

When I was younger my uncle had about 200 hives at any given time. 
At the age of 6 my cousin knocked over a hive :no: I was stung more than 30 times.....it took me almost 20 years to let a bee come close to me.

In 2008 my husband found a swarm in our barn, I guess all those years listening to my uncle paid off... I borrowed a vail and decided i was going to face my fears:scratch:

Now I have 11 hives...my stress relief...when I'm with the girls I can't think about anything other than them

My children ages 5 & 7 started a hive each this year and they love it to! :thumbsup:

(only about 10 stings in the past year...they are not as bad as I remember)


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## nathan (Jun 10, 2010)

My dad. No doubt. Although sometimes it wasn't my favorite thing to do, middle of summer and 10,000 degrees, it was my job to take care of dad's hives when he was in the hay field. He had bees for longer than I can remember, and over the last few years, before he passed away, I found that our family has been keeping bees here in the Ozarks for generations. Now that he has gone on, I am taking care of his few remaining hives, and am beginning to expand my own operation here on my farm. After 15 or so years off for college and travelling around the country, I now have the absolute fascination and love for these creatures that he had, and hope to continue the tradition that has been in our family for so long.


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## Soupy944 (Jun 4, 2010)

my uncle used to keep bees. i was born in 1981 and he died when i was young. i remember the queen cages all around the house when i was young. this was in the fingerlakes in NY state. he used to fly-fish too. i have taken that up too!


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## devdog108 (May 7, 2009)

5 swarms came across my backyard. I hived 3, 2 absconded and one off'd the queen. Welcome to my addiction....Hi, I'm Dev and I'm an addict...and i ordered a package, and have been going strong since....


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## schmism (Feb 7, 2009)

As the wife and i continue to work on/develop our hobby farm, i saw it as an important part to add. And i like honey....


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## beekeeper1756 (Mar 20, 2010)

My brother got me hooked. He talked to me about it and over lunch, I was done. Thanks brother.

The honey and hobby of tending and keeping bees appeals to me and I like to see the bees do well.


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## bigbearomaha (Sep 3, 2009)

used to help an old farm boy with his hives. He retired and sold everything off. I didn't want to do honey production, but I did want to continue to work with bees.

I decided this year to begin my honey bee conservation project and it's been terrific so far.

Big Bear


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## NasalSponge (Jul 22, 2008)

Back in the 80's my wife and I where....well we wanted to be self sufficient. We had our kids at home with a midwife, home schooled, heated the house with wood only, had a big garden and bees seemed the next logical step...man did I fall in love with them.


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## JBees (Feb 9, 2010)

My grandfather use to play with the bee trees in northern California about 40 years ago and I was amazed he did it without getting stund and with no protection. One day I thought I would try bees since they were so intriguing. I picked up a Biology degree and was very interested in insect life during the course of my studies, especially the organized insects. Well about 40 years later and a little more money made I dove right in after seeing the price of honey. I thought it was rather expensive for a small bottle. I find it is going to be more expensive in the short run of keeping hives. It is well worth the effort though since I'm still amazed at these tiny little creatures. I can sit at the front of the hive and watch them for hours to see what the behavior is. Can't wait to build a display hive for the kids. It is just plain fun and interesting. I'll be teaching my son the hobby as soon as I get him a suit. Keep the buzz going everyone.
JBees


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## Hambone (Mar 17, 2008)

In Texas everything is bigger. I got carried off by a swarm of bees one day. They kept me there for days feeding me honey and brain washing me. They droped me off a few miles away and made me walk home. I have been into bees ever since trying to get back to the mother swarm.


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## NasalSponge (Jul 22, 2008)

They made you walk home?? Sounds fishy to me!! :lpf: :lpf:


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## Hambone (Mar 17, 2008)

That's why nobody believes me! But I promise.


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## honeybeekeeper (Mar 3, 2010)

Yeah right ooooook!!!...HAHAHA :lpf:


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## MARBIS (Jun 10, 2010)

Watched on TV "The Nature Of Things" - To Bee or Not To Bee, decided that night to start with few hives, and yes I am an addict now.


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## Reid (Dec 3, 2008)

As a kid I used to hang with the commercial beekeepers who would put hundreds of hives on my family's timber property. It was a blast! This was back in the late 70's through the 80's.
One day a buddy from Missouri asked if I knew where he could put a hive (he and his wife just had a condo). He'd been keeping bees all his life until he moved to Seattle, and was missing it terribly. I offered up my place. Watching that colony of his every day brought back all those fun times as a kid and I just had to jump in. 
Besides, what else would I do with all the free time I don't have?
~Reid


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## Idahobeek (Jun 11, 2010)

Always been interested in them. I just never took the plunge as life always seemed to be in the way. My wife and I were watching a show about bees a year or so ago and I found out she too had always been interested. 
We are now more intrigued than we ever have been and find ourselves wishing we would have started years ago. She has visions of honey and candles, I find myself standing at the hive watching them come and go mesmerized at all their wonders and trying to figure them out.


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## peacekeeperapiaries (Jun 23, 2009)

My grandfather had bees, my dad had bees, and my uncle had bees. Now my grandfather has passed on but me and dad have bees again...time with dad is priceless


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## Batman (Jun 7, 2009)

erwkkkk08 said:


> Third generation beekeeper.


Bump...Though my Dad got out when he became deathly allergic. When a swarm of bees took up residence at a friends house, I figured that was my calling, one quick extraction later and I was hooked and now I have 45 and still growing. Swarm call for tomorrow and 2 planned extractions and 1 trapout still on the calendar.

Craig


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## indypartridge (Nov 18, 2004)

I guess I can blame Laura Ingalls Wilder. When our girls were younger, one year we did a homeschool curriculum based on her "Little House" books. In _Little House in the Big Woods_ there's a chapter "Pa and the Bee Tree", so for that chapter we did a unit study on honey bees and I took a day off work for a field trip to visit a local beekeeper.

My daughters have moved on, but I've never finished the unit study on honey bees!


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## mlewis48 (Nov 24, 2007)

My Grandfather had bees and I was always interested in them but was too afraid of them to help him take care of his hives. Years later, my Uncle had several hives and I started asking questions and had to have one. My brother and I started out with 3. 3 became 6, 6 became 22 and now we have 65. I wish that I would have started out doing this a long time ago. Now, I have to find someone to pass it on to. Most kids are just too busy to stop and see the good things in life.


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## devdog108 (May 7, 2009)

your bees came from area 51....lol


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## Mike S (Dec 25, 2009)

My father inlaw brought a hive to my farm that a coworker had given him. I had read a couple of books on them and at the time had decided I didnt have the time to invest in them and do it right. I went with him to inspect one time and we opened the hive, the heavenly smell rose and Ive ben hooked ever since. I transfered to another job at the same company with lots of time off and I dove in head first never looking back. I want to continue to grow and continue to learn along the way. Beekeping has brought me great inner peace and I love everything about it.


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## batman46 (Jun 1, 2010)

I haven't started yet but I grew up with bees in the walls of our house.Dad said that the bees were here before he was [the house was built in 1888] and they will bee there after he is dead.
the house that I live in now has 2 trees with bees in them and I love to sit
and watch them .I can get within 6 in of the hole and I have never got stung.


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## warbuk (Feb 9, 2010)

my dad had bees when i was a kid (bout 33 years ago) due to lifes problems we had to get rid of them. i had always thought of getting bees myself after i was older. 

a few years ago, a guy on a motorcycle forum posted pics of him doucing with gas and setting ablaze a swarm of honey bees. that kinda hit me hard. knowing the population is dwindling as it is. so i started thinking more about getting back into it.

back in february, my youngest boy says that he wanted to get some one day. it was kinda strange because we hadn't talked about it before. (he's scared to death of bees lol)

so a wek later, we had our box ready and bees on order. my boy is not scared of them at all and the bees are doing great!

btw, this forum is awesome! thanks everyone for the great info on bee keeping. 

Calvin...


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## NewbeeNnc (May 21, 2009)

This is a good thread. Good to read about the heritage.

A co-worker of mine intrigued my interest. After I left that job I ran into him one day and I asked him about his bees, only to find out he was having to commute to work now and didn't have time to work his bees. He gave me almost all of his equipment for free to try out.

I contacted the local bee club and they set me up with an 80 year old man who is a NC Master Craftsman Beekeeper. After 30 minutes with him, I knew this is what I wanted to do. I continually am trying to find a door that will lead me to a career that has something to do with bees. Why you ask? Well a good friend of mine told me to find what I was passionate about and do that for a living. I would love to be in the bees all day everyday, but right now it's just not feasible or the right door just has not opened. So for now it's computer work.


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## Marc (May 20, 2005)

Diane Rehm on NPR interviewed Holley Bishop about her book "Robbing the Bees" in 2005. The way she described her hobby, her work with bees kept me listening to the full story. That radio story, together with not seeing any honey bees on any flowers in my yard and having seen my uncle keep bees when I was a kid, made me read all I could about them. I started with two nucs, by accident in May 2005. I only wanted one. But the oldtimer that sold me the nucs insisted I get two. He told me I would thank him later. I did. Five years later I try to limit the number of my hives to no more than 12 to 15. 
Thanks Diane, Holley, Chris and Bob!


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## Andrew Dewey (Aug 23, 2005)

I had always wanted to be a farmer - but the ideas of twice a day milkings and endless days spent checking/fixing fences - didn't excite me. So I acquired some blueberry land and decided I'd do my own pollination. Eight years later I've sold some honey and spent a lot more on bees than I ever intended to. It most certainly is an addiction. But I don't smoke nor drink beer casually, so what else am I supposed to spend money on? Anyway, I'm now over 30 hives.

PS - I do enjoy beeing in a hayloft on a hot August afternoon when the bales are flying up the elevator and need to be stacked quickly.


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## Adam Foster Collins (Nov 4, 2009)

his thread is fun to read. Thanks for posting everyone. I hope we hear from a lot more of you, as I know there are 1000's here...



I was into creatures of nature since I was little. I had jars of ants and snakes, crayfish and salamanders all through childhood. My two brothers and I spent summers in Vermont with my grandparents.

Gramp always had a couple of hives, and of three boys, I was the only one interested in them, so I would help with inspections and when fishing trout on the rivers, I'd be on the lookout for punk wood for the smoker. Gramp's 'back room" was storage for bee gear and fishing gear, and the smell of that room, permeated with bees wax, and the golden memories of those summers made bees equate closely with everything good in the world. To me, bees are a powerful symbol of goodness.

When I was in High-School, we had moved back to Vermont as my Dad wanted to be closer to his aging parents. Gramp showed up to the house one day with bee gear.
"What's this?", Dad asked him.
"You got bees comin'." Gramp replied flatly. He had already placed the order for two packages and they were on the way to Dad's address.

Dad didn't argue with him. Gramp had decided that it was time to pass on the tradition, and of his three children, my Dad was the guy. Even though Dad had never shown an interest, it was decided. And Dad got hooked. So bees continued in my daily life - part of a whole.

When I became an adult, I spent most of my life in cities, renting places and I never even thought that it might be acceptable to keep bees in an urban setting. And it always seemed like a bit too much money to get started. I would just get my bee fix from Dad's bee talk. But I always missed them, and found myself many times telling people what I knew about their amazing habits.

Last fall, as I began my annual lament of the onset of winter, I decided to see what bee gear was going for on ebay. And that's where I discovered the Top Bar Hive. At first, it was hard to break my image of the little box-shaped hives as being the 'right' way, but the realization that I could actually get started NOW - with the wood scraps I had lying around the house - even with winter coming... And I soon began to read about urban beekeepers. 

So I actually inquired about local laws and found that there were no restrictions in Halifax. In fact there were several beekeepers around me. Forums like this made me realize how little I actually knew, and top bar hives appealed to my interest in designing and building things. I started sketching.

I built my first two top bar hives with my Dad at Christmas. We waxed the top bars with wax that gramp had put away in the back room his last year beekeeping almost 20 years earlier. It was religious, somehow to me. I built four more hives this spring here in Nova Scotia and hived two swarms in May.

So now I'm back to bees.


Adam


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## StevenG (Mar 27, 2009)

In 1970 I was serving a student church in Freedom, OK out near the panhandle. Made a pastoral visit to a couple in the church, and she was in the back yard feeding her bees, which had arrived a few days earlier. I walked out back, and we visited while watching the bees come and go around the quart jar feeder in the entrance. I was hooked!

The next day, Monday, went to Montgomery Ward, ordered a beginner's kit and package of Starlines. Went from one to two to 16 hives before quitting around 1982 due to a move to Florida. kept the extractor and other harvesting equipment after selling the hives. 

When I moved to my current location, I decided it was time to take the plunge again. Started with 2, now at 29, going to 50-60. Yes, it is very addictive. I like to go out to the hives in the back yard and simply watch them, and enjoy the aroma of nectar ripening into honey. 
Regards,
Steven


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## Mike Snodgrass (Mar 11, 2010)

For me it was in the attempt to get greater garden yeilds from pollination. That changed once i realized the potential in honey and other bee by product sales! The Love i have for honey doesnt hurt either! Of course, theres one problem, i was going to open a donut shop years ago untill i realized how much profit i would be eating away!!!:scratch:


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## Mtnmanky (Jun 10, 2010)

New to the forum (and loving it) and about to re-enter the bee world.
For a short time while in high school I worked for James Gibbs, a great guy and a large scale (at least to me) Beekeeper out in San Diego County CA. I knew him from church, needed a job, and he was kind enough to let me learn. I well remember getting over 100 stings the first day, and two weeks of sleeping with my arms in ice water to counter the itch until suddenly one day it didn't itch or sting anymore...happy day!  It also seemed that was when the bees stopped stinging...or maybe that was how long it took me to learn to be more gentle...maybe a slower learner than the bees! 

I kept some level of interest and and being intrigued over the many years, college, marriage, kids, grandkids later, and we have now moved to a small farm here in Grant County KY, and I ran across the Grant County Backyard Beekeepers. A terriffic group of folks, and a great help. As I visit with them it's amazing how stuff James taught me back in the early '70s is coming back. I now have lots of catalogs, am building boxes and frames and gathering materials, and looking forward to buying bees in the spring!


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## hippiehoneyhut (Jun 23, 2010)

my grandpa had been doing it i wanted to learn i read an add in the newspaper that was enrolling students in a local beekeeping school i enrolled with a ten dollar fee witch payed for you beekeeping book and a membership to the morrow county beekeeping association all in all that started it all.... im only 13 well ill be 14 realy soon


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## PerryBee (Dec 3, 2007)

Was watching PBS one evening (10- 12 yrs ago) and it was about honeybees. I remember it was narrated by the guy who played Charles Emerson Winchester III on MASH (David Ogden Stires ???) Right after the program ended I got a long distance call from my younger brother whom I hadn't seen in years. I was telling him about the program I had just watched and he said "thanks for reminding me, I have to call my keeper, I almost forgot". (he is an orchardist). When I found out he actually paid someone to put hives on his property I thought, Hey, a hobby where I can make a buck or two. (19 hives and 10 years later I'm still trying) :doh:

Perry


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## honeydreams (Aug 10, 2009)

It all started way back in 1974, My grand parents got me a a book about Honeybees fron National Geografic. When I was in Boy scouts I got my beekeeping merit badge. I would help a local beek in the summers and Then got married lived all over this green earth. Retired from being a Medic and pick up the Adiction I mean Hobby. thats my story and I am sticking to it.


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## trainwrecker (May 23, 2010)

we had bees in the 70's, when i was a teenager. i have wanted to get back into bees for years, but couldn't seem to justify it until we started gardening and never saw any bees. our garden has done great this year. my wife loves the" other women" and my eleven yr old daughter thinks they are awesome. what better way to spend time w/ your family than watching one of God's great creations!


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## suttonbeeman (Aug 22, 2003)

My adviser in collage got me to take begining beekeeping which he taught(he needed some more students). that was spring of 1977. I got two hives that year and decided I wanted about 10 total..geez that was alot. By 1982 I had 47 and got a 275 lb honey crop...increased to 125 until 2001. Quit raising tobacco and decided to increase my hive count to 300...THen two years later to 500. Took me alot of work to move 10 hives in back of pickup truck....never thought of being a migratory beekeeper. Then in 2000 I had bees pollinating pumpkins...no rain until Sept then rain rain and more rain. Couldnt get to bees to get then out intil ground froze..VERy light and only way to salvage them was taing to FLorida. Never dreamed when I moved those first 10 hives and how concerned I was lookin in back of truck every mile that I would move bees from Ky to Fl to Ca to Wi. Never thought I consider having 1,000 colonies, but that is the plan over the next year.


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## MikeJ (Jan 1, 2009)

We have a family farm (right now it is mostly in word - and a lot of sweat) - going over expenses and "profits" we decided bees could be a great producer.

My dad worked in Texas for a commercial beekeeper one year when he was a teen and used to tell us about it when we were young. So we knew a bit about it.

If God allows it, it will provide our honey and enough to make a nice profit.

Mike


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## johng (Nov 24, 2009)

I have always been iterested in farming, animals, gardening and being outside. I can remember seeing the observation hive at the fair every year. I finally got to a point in life where I had a small piece of land and a little bit of extra money. I had lived there for 4 years and had never saw a honey bee in my garden. So I started reading and talking to anyone I could about bees. I found a local beek from this forum, and he sold me 5 hives back in Jan. I know that was a wrong time of year to start. But, All of the bee places I called said it would be May or June before I could get a package. And that was just not going to do. So now I am upto 14 hives and have some more queens coming the end of the month, I planning on making atleast 4 or 5 more splits then. I'm not sure where I'm going to stop with the bees. But, I am having fun a long the way. If you are new here be very careful this is very addicting. LOL


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## Buffalolick (Jan 26, 2010)

Around 1980 my granddad got a hive he kept for his garden. Along with it came a set of booklets published by Dandant all about bees and beekeeping. I was 9 or 10 years old and after reading those I knew I would be a beekeeper one day. I too begged mom and dad to let me have a hive. Looking back on it now probally best I didn't then. Things have a way of working out for the best no matter what we wanted at the time. Fast foward some 25 years and I finally made good on becoming a beek. Started out as just for fun and to help pollenation in the garden. Now its a part of our farm and becoming bigger by the day. Started doing cutouts this year and have been covered up. Can't keep up with demand for our honey. I'm catching swarms, doing trapouts and making splits. Dabbling with queen rearing and planning to sell nucs next spring. I love these bugs! Enjoyed reading everyones stories. Great thread!


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## sasquatch (Mar 13, 2010)

im in it for the science,woodwerkin,solitude.opcorn:


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## beardance (Jun 15, 2010)

A wild hair!


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

I can blame my Great great grandfather Christian F. Diehnelt, who brought bees with him from Pappendorf Saxony to Milwaukee Wisconsin in 1852. He sold his honey under the name Linden Apiary. I am fifth gen. commercial beekeeper, working with my son(6th gen), still in S.E. Wisconsin.

Roland Diehnelt
Linden Apiary Est. 1852


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## The Soap Pixie (Mar 15, 2010)

I wanted to learn more about them and I figured this was the best way to do it. Plus, I thought understanding them more would get me over the bee phobia I grew up with.


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## concrete-bees (Jun 20, 2009)

i just figured that there had to be a fast easy way to blow money --- heard this was the job to get that done!!!! haha 

i think i got into it for the fact that i could make a difference in the commuity as to help open others eyes to the fact that we are doomed if we dont watch the little things around us.


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## dkbee (Jun 3, 2010)

We had a summer when our bean plants were putting on flowers but not growing beans. That is when we noticed that the bees hadn't been around. So, my wife started praying for bees. Two bees, big black furry carpenter bees, showed up everyday for most of the summer. Then we started getting beans. I decided then that I would start keeping bees. 

Two years later we moved to an acre property and I finally got my chance. This is the end of my first year and I have two supers filled with honey and mostly capped. I can't wait to extract my first batch of honey.

DKB


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## duck_nutt (Apr 27, 2010)

saw a tv special about 15 year ago that peaked my intetrest in bees. Since I lived in the country, I decided to look further into it..read several books from the library...had just enough knowledge to be dangerous...father in law knew I was interested and discovered a hive of bees in a 5 gallon bucket on the edge of a field. I'm telling you..walking up to that bucket full of bees scared the mess out of me....but I got the hole taped up and the bees to my house without incident. unfortunately, after the cut out, the left the hive...it was getting late in the year, and I decided I'd give it another go in the spring. built some supers and a bee vac that winter to get ready...but my daughter was born in February and bees weren't on my mind for a while...

fastforward 16 years later..now with 3 kids ages 10-16...since they're getting older, I'm not the center of their universe like I use to be:waiting:.....:lpf:

it was time for me to start doing something for me...read an article in the newspaper about an old beekeeper south of me..he talked about it as being a dieing art...said most young people aren't interested in beekeeping anymore...said they don't have time since they're trying to raise kids and all...he was talking about me! so I took the jump...only 1 thriving hive so far(just spotted my queen yesterday for the first time!) but have 2 trapouts and 1 cutout on the schedule! I may start advertising soon!!!

oh, and I love this site.....I know everyone gets tired of answering the same ole questions everyday(we newbees hate doing searched) but Thanks to those who do take the time to type out the answers....it really is appreciated!


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## CAHighwind (Jun 9, 2010)

Hmm...
I'd often thought about it, how cool it would be. I remember a segment on 3-2-1 Contact when I was a kid 30 years back where they showed a beekeeper extracting honey. The visual of that always stayed with me. 

Fast forward 30 years, and I end up living out in the middle of no where. Being something of a survivalist, my husband one day says, "You should start beekeeping. It'd be a good bartering item if ya know, the APOCALYPSE comes rolling along or what not."

...that was all the excuse I needed! I said heck yeah, and dove right in, immediately signing up for 2 beekeeping seminars, getting hives, so forth.

Ta daaaa.


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## MichelinMan (Feb 18, 2008)

Purely selfish reasons... at first. My wife and I are great honey lovers and we eat a ton of it. So I thought I'd give it a go to see if I could get better (and free) honey! Well I fell in love with the little beasties and I'm on my third year beekeeping. Now I've learned so much about them and how important they are. I'm pretty sure I'm stung for life! I just love peering down on a comb and seeing a solid mass of brood..... or eggs... or honey.... It's a warm fuzzy feeling every time.


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Boy Scout Beekeeping Merit Badge in 1969, sorry to see scouting abandon the principles of its founding.


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## NasalSponge (Jul 22, 2008)

> It'd be a good bartering item


We used to barter honey all the time!! Folks will trade almost anything for honey....and you don't need an APOCALYPSE to do it!!


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## tct1w (Jun 6, 2008)

Had to think of a new way to blow money. Seriously though I dont know. Moved out in the country and decided to take a class and ended up getting certified. Just three year into it and I friggin love it. Been stung a few hundered times at least,lost bee to shb,had queens killed,made splits and have learned a ton. Build my own equipment.I a friggin junkie. Will be doing it to my last breath Peace Dave


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## dehavik (Jun 5, 2010)

Excellent thread...I've enjoyed each one.

Self-sufficiencey is a long-term goal my husband and I have been working slowly towards. It began with gardening vegetables, then fruit trees, and now grains like wheat and buckwheat on a very small scale. We live in a very harsh climate, and wanted all the help we could get with pollination. 

I had never seen honeybees in our area in four years, so I decided to jump into it and began this spring with my first package in a Lang. I built a KTBH to hive a swarm (because if there was any colony of feral bees that survived our eight months of winter last year, I wanted their genetics in my apiary) but haven't been notified of any, yet.

It is my great hope that my colony will survive the winter--that is my first goal--and then the wonderful opportunity to harvest our own honey and use the wax for various things, and keep the honeybee population alive here in the mountains, and perhaps do a little to promote natural beekeeping practices and education makes this a very fulfilling hobby. 

I love it. The only downside is that the bees pretty much take care of themselves, and I am left with nothing to do but peek in once a week. 

Anja, from the bustling metropolis of Antimony, pop. 160


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## Lauren (Jun 10, 2010)

I'm a gardener and have always loved the bees big and small in my yard/garden. This year all of the usual honey bees in my garden disappeared. 

Jan they were on my hellebores. February they did a GREAt job on my blueberries! March they were GONE! the yard was still and quiet. My Squash and zucchini? I was HAND POLLINATING! Green beans were turning up all pod. 

So I got my first ever bees. Boy am I a bee junkie!!!!!  I Love, LOVE, LOVE them! I can't wait to get more next year! 

On a side note: I did lots of research on the chemicals I was using on my customer's yards and boy has THAT list dwindled!!!


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## cdykstra (Feb 15, 2009)

I run a CSA farm, and was out in the early morning a couple years ago when I noticed the bees in my cover crop (buckwheat). It was one of those magic moments - once I saw a couple of them, I saw thousands. I realized that the entire 1/4 acre of buckwheat was alive with them.

I took a class on small scale vegetable production that next winter, and the instructor urged us to get a hive or two close to our acreage - citing a 30 to 50% increase in production. I was skeptical, but gave it a shot and now I'm a believer. And it's not just the veggies - I have more of everything now, including apples, raspberries, plums, blackberries and pears. 

Life is better with bees!


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## Walt B (Jul 14, 2009)

When people ask, "What do you do?" and I say I'm an engineer, you can just see them thinking..."boring". So I decided to do something exciting: raise bees.

The I realized, raising bugs isn't really exciting, it's kind of odd...the kind of thing an engineer might do. :doh:

Actually, the ways of the bee, the organization, the business of the colony: it's all very fascinating. When you stop being inquisitive, you stop being. The bees don't let that happen. 

Walt


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## Ethfol (Jun 25, 2010)

I got into bee's through a book, but not the way one would think. This book was about a boy and a racoon and in one paragraph they happened to mention him going to help his uncle extract honey. They said a very small amount about the extractor but it was just enough to get me wondering on the dynamics of the whole extracting system. So I did a little research and one thing led to another and then voila! I was a beekeeper.


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## Bsweet (Apr 9, 2010)

Exwife carried Epie-pen so got 
Bees. Hey it worked. True about epie-pen, but always interested about Bees and the fools who kept them. As a farm boy I knew what they did, as a biker I knew that at 60 MPH they hurt like hell even if you didn't get stung.
New wife was raised with bees and supported me when I decided to give keeping a try. WHAT A BLAST!!!!!!!!!!! Jim


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## Stone (Jun 6, 2009)

Thank you for this question. It's quite clear that it brought a lot of good and goodness out in many people.

My reason: I didn't see bees anymore. I remember growing up in the '50s out in the "country" - back then it was mid Queens, NYC - and the gardens and parks were absolutely filled with feral bees. It was a given that if there was a blossom, there was a bee; if there was a spring and summer, there were bees.

Then there were none. Then came Rudy Giuliani who sprayed every corner of NYC with malathion because of the overblown West Nile Virus scare. Bees? What happened to the rest of the ecosystem? (That's a story for another time.) I could just imagine the panic of the rooftop beekeepers...

My wife and I bought a house in upstate New York. She is horticulturist and wicked gardener. Still didn't see any bees. We knew about CCD. I started reading. Took a weekend workshop. And two years later, I got my first nucs. It was the beginning of a life long love affair. Before they arrived, I saw my fist feral bee on our crab apple tree. When I walk around town and see bees in people's gardens, I think to myself, "There are my girls." It makes me feel good that I'm part of this.


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## flatfootflukey (Jun 15, 2010)

a year or so ago i watched a series on RFD TV called Honey Bees and Beekeeping: A Year in the Life of an Apiary by entomologist Keith S. Delaplane, Ph.D. it was very interesting but i missed the first episode so i bought the book and DVD set. then started checking out other bee books from the library and have been hooked ever since


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## Daddy'sBees (Jul 1, 2010)

Pretty simple story for me. When I was young, my uncle kept bees on the farms, usually 4 or 5 hives per yard. We always had fresh comb honey. I just loved it on hot buttered biscuits!  I was always interested in bees. Well finally one day, after many moves in life, I realized I might be able to return to them. I now have the place, time, and renewed desire to keep and raise honey bees. I just wish I'd gotten back sooner!


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