By Marie Elium
I had one thought when I tried on a beekeeping suit for the first time: How fast can I run in this thing?
Chickens are quick, as anyone who’s seen “Rocky” knows. I share a flock with my neighbor and chase plenty of them around the yard. Bees are tricky. Not only are they fast, but they also have a propensity to sting if they’re surprised or mishandled by an inexperienced beekeeper.
My chicken neighbor and I dove in anyway and became bee owners; we’re too new to call ourselves beekeepers just yet. By the time you read this, we will have installed a second hive in my yard; that’s 20,000 bees, in case you were keeping track.
Dodging Death
I have lots of experience with animals: dogs, cats, horses, birds, fish, bats, mice, and even a garter snake or two. It took a couple of bee classes before I realized that this beekeeping thing was going to tax my animal management skills.
Bees die or disappear in more ways than most creatures I’ve encountered. They can get too hot, too cold or too wet. They can starve to death or have too much food (honey) and leave a crowded hive. Stray swarms will attack a hive and take over. Sometimes, the queen and her minions fly away without obvious provocation. Death is rife in a bee colony. Worker bees kill weak queens. Undertaker bees drag dead bees out of hives. A skunk can eat bees like popcorn if the hive isn’t elevated. And I haven’t mentioned the Varroa mite. Keeping bees is like watching an episode of “The Sopranos.” You don’t know how or when a character will die, only that it’ll be spectacular and violent.
So what does this have to do with our May/June issue? It’s our Summer Fun Guide, and I’m keeping bees alive for my summer fun. You can find other suggestions for non-insect (mostly) things to do starting on Page 18. In addition to bees and chickens, I’m a big fan of outdoor concerts. Check with a community nearby for places to spend a balmy, music-filled evening.
We also have a story about starting your own business, a popular option for people who are rethinking their retirement years, and a notion that’s catching on with people living longer and healthier lives than our parents and grandparents enjoyed.
While being an investigative reporter is an unusual and gutsy job, Carl Monday tells us how he’s making the transition from full-time to part-time work in a Q&A with our pop culture columnist Mike Olszewski. Monday is interesting and impressively agile. Want to know how I know the latter trait? Read the story on Page 26.
You might say I’m going in the opposite direction from retirement by getting bees. I suspect I’ll be more attentive to them than I was to my (now) grown children, who, like a restless bee colony, up and left us: one to Atlanta, the other to Dallas.
Kids are sturdier than honeybees, based on my experience so far, and I don’t recall issues with mites. But I’m finding similarities: if you stick with both kids and bees long enough, you’ll get a sweet payoff, and both can also give a nasty sting. With bees, it’s when they’re startled; with kids, it’s when they say goodbye.
I’ll take the bee sting anytime.
Photo by Jeff Baker
