Be a Beekeeper

Beekeepers come in so many different forms. If you knew my husband you would probably be surprised he is a beekeeper. I guess I always pictured some old guy out there and my husband is young, handsome, athletic...he is a stud. Although the bee suit really doesn't do him justice:)

I am not the kind of girl that freaks out at a spider, but I am not one who looks for it either:) But I love finding ways to be more self-reliant. I had a funny thought on honey extracting day actually : I had just finished cutting the wax cappings off the honey, and I sat down to fold my cloth diapers and noticed the hum of the dehydrator that was drying my apricots I picked earlier that day...I thought to myself  "what am I doing? I could have gone to Walmart and saved about a billion hours of my time:)" I can't explain it but I enjoy it. I enjoy saving money, learning how to do things for myself and help our environment at the same time.

Our kids are always bringing in creatures just like I did as a kid. I have great memories as a kid and all of my "pets" so I don't mind it. Our favorites are ladybugs, tadpoles, worms, caterpillars, potato bugs and a lot of snails. So when we went to see our friend Larry's bees they were completely cool with it.

Some say I am overprotective with my kids so would I really have a hive of killers in my backyard? Because they're not:)

This is why we do it:

1- It is educational. My husband loved learning about these amazing creatures and wanted to go one step further.

I love to hear the kids talk about the bees and they really know their stuff. We saw some honey bees on some flowers last week and my 3 yr old said "look mom our bees are "pollnating" the flowers...they're so cute!"

2- We get honey for our storage, honey to share, and honey to sell! The kids loved it when Rob would bring a frame over to them and use a spoon to give them a taste of the honey.

3- If you have seen "The Bee Movie" you saw that without bees working it could really effect everyone. It is a silly cartoon(we love it:), but that part is true. The bee population is decreasing and no one really knows why. Some speculate cell phone use has caused some of the problem. Without bees we have no honey, beeswax or pollination....we just can't do it at the same rate or quality that they can. If we had more beekeepers than we could increase the bee population!

The kids know that they respect the bees and their hive and always wear their safety gear.

 4- It's so fun for our family! We get to be a part of something together and it is has been great to see. Rob works a lot so this is a hobby he has that we can all be a part of when he is home. They each take turns at the hive, spinning the extractor, filling the honey bears, etc. They tell their friends, family, teachers about their bees because they are so proud of it. The two oldest have a collection of bee items from the hive...wax, dead bees, queen cells, etc and are making a scrapbook of all of their bee pictures to share. My 7 year old is excited for her "honey stand" next month.



A collection piece: worker and drone bee



5-Discover new hobbies. I am excited because I like crafty ideas and I now have my own beeswax...which is $18 lb at the store, that I can make candles, and soap with and be creative, and eventually sell. There are a lot of advantages to beeswax candles compared to paraffin wax that will be a different post:)

The wax I melted down and put in silicone molds, prior to wicks. They smell sweet:)

6- Your garden and your neighbors gardens, trees, plants will thrive!

                     If you like the idea of having a pollinator but aren't sure about maintaining the hive yourself, there are options as well. In the future we would like to be able to provide this service. We would also be able to extract the honey for you as well and pay you per lb and allow us to sell your honey under our label. Or you can have the full experience! Rob would be willing to help you, just like our beekeeper friend has helped us.