How I Became a Beekeeper

Along with all of the other hobbies in my jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none repertoire, I can add Beekeeping.  I have kept bees for five years now, at one time keeping six rather large hives, suffering a colony collapse in 2008, losing all but one hive.  We then built up to two hives in the summer of 2009, only to lose both hives in the blizzard of 2010.  I am now maintaining two blessedly healthy hives.

The love of bees is an odd thing, it’s part science, part farming, and part pet care.  You start out with a little interest in bees, and you think, “Should I do this?”  You then talk yourself out of it, for a while.  I have been interested in the idea of beekeeping since college (yes, they did have bees back then), but never really followed up on it, mostly because I didn’t own my own home at the time.  Then life got busy, with finding my first “real job” and creating my adult life, and the idea of bees temporarily withered away.  I graduated, started a career, got married, and bought our own farm.

“Ahhhh,” I hear you thinking, “that’s when she got her bees.”  Nope, not yet.  I never really thought to mention it to my husband.  When we were dating, engaged, newly married; it just never came up.  I was still under the impression that it was a crazy idea.  You’d think, given that I am known for crazy ideas, that this wouldn’t have stopped me.  I mean, really, my husband had by then heard every crazy idea that popped into my head, but not beekeeping.

Beekeeping only ever came up because of one thing:  Video Gaming.

“Wait, what?”  See how I read your mind?  It’s a bit creepy, isn’t it?

Yes, video gaming.  I was sitting in the living room, while my husband was reading a tractor magazine (yes, there actually are tractor magazines), playing “The Sims”.  It was the original, and I had the “Making Magic” expansion pack.  And I was keeping virtual bees.  My husband looked over my shoulder and said, “What is your little man doing?”  When I explained it, he responded with, “That’s pretty cool.”

At this point, I should explain that my husband, who works full-time, and then comes home and farms full-time, used to think that video games were a waste of time.  He has since come around  Although he doesn’t like to play them himself, he will, at times, watch me play and cheer me on like I was the quarterback at the Super Bowl.  But, at this time, he merely tolerated my diversion.  So, when I heard something in a video game referred to as “pretty cool,” it was significant.

It became a springboard for a discussion about bees and beekeeping.  I liked it from a scientific standpoint, as well as from a hobby standpoint.  My husband loved the idea from an agricultural perspective. 

Aside from his primary job, my husband and I do everything together.  We work on the farm together, we do our housework together, we cook and eat our meals together, we watch TV together, and we read together.  Beekeeping became significant because it gave us something else to do together, but this something was pure hobby.  Sure, it is a benefit to our farm, and there is work involved, but it’s a hobby.  It’s a very special one, as it is one that neither of us had done before we met, and we have both gone through the learning experience together.  It’s special to us.  Our bees are special to us.  Any bees are special to us.

And to think, none of it would have happened without “The Sims”.

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For comments, questions, and feedback, the author may be contacted at:  unkemptruminations@comcast.net