OK. Some readers may know that I am a novice beekeeper. Currently, though I am sans bees as we felt they should stay with the orchard on our previous ranch property. What can I say about bees? Well, they are incredibly interesting just for observing the intricacies of nature. If you have any type of garden, they will help the plants produce more flowers and fruit/veggies by pollination. This is especially true for orchards/fruit trees. Some people harvest the pollen from the hive as a holistic treatment for allergies. Finally, and my main motivation for having bees...honey. I love honey. REAL honey. Beware the stuff diluted with high fructose corn syrup! When we first moved to the country, a large oak tree on the property was inhabited by a wild hive of honey bees. How wonderful, I thought (after nearly being stung while standing in their flight path). Then, when admiring the incredible wildflowers in Spring here...I imagined what incredible honey the bees must make here. In fact, when standing near the aforementioned oak tree you could smell the honey. Thus began my education in honey bees.
I endeavored to learn as much as I could by subscribing to beekeeping journals such as The American Bee Journal www.dadant.com/journal . Reading the beekeepers bible; The Hive and the Honey Bee and the journals, I soon realized beekeeping had many different angles. Mostly depending on what your goals in beekeeping are. There is the entimology and bee breeding aspect, the commercial pollination aspect, the honey extracting aspect...and shades of bee management one could never imagine. Suffice it to say I was a bit overwhelmed. A trimmed down guide like the ebook on the right (pic of me and hubby Dino in our bee suits) would have helped me wade through so much technical info aimed at experienced beekeepers.
If you know anyone who keeps bees and they will let you follow them around...do it. This was what I was constantly wishing for. Especially as there is so much that is intinsically local about beekeeping. Very much like gardening, and of course that makes sense. I learned by doing, and learned lots but I am far from an expert. I was just happy with my busy little hive of Italian bees (supposed to be the friendliest/least aggressive) pollinating our flowers, trees, and veggie garden. After watching how hard they worked, I actually felt guilty taking their honey and the only taste I had was during a hive inspection when I couldn't resist taking off my glove and getting a bit!
More about my adventures in bee land next time. ~Jenna