Quotes About Beekeeping

I wish being a beekeeper, which I am, gave you a free pass on the carbon footprint, but it doesn't.

Nothing gives a person more confidence... than to be zipped snugly inside a bee suit.

Paulo plugged in the machine, which looked like the mutant offspring of a vacuum cleaner and a toaster oven, and showed them how to place wood chips in the bottom. Then he lit the wood chips with a long match and aimed the metal contraption at the opening of the hive. Puffs of smoke wafted around the hive and then blew straight in. Almost immediately the bees, which had been flying haphazardly around the room, raced back to the hive, and the buzzing inside grew louder and louder.

The Magistrate says, "I am a student of human nature, did you know that, Mr. Pitts?" "It beats beekeeping, I guess." He smiles infinitesimally.

Mingling frames from the broodnest with frames from honey supers also causes problems. The material in the cells and the bees walking on this darkened wax will darken the honey stored in the combs and add bits and flavors of what was there before, reducing the pristine quality of the honey you want to harvest. The bottom line: Don't mix frames used for honey with frames used for brood.

Screened bottom boards were used by beekeepers more than 150 years ago for improved ventilation. Beekeepers replaced them with solid bottom boards in the winter, and over time the expense of having two pieces of equipment fell into disfavor, and the screens went away.)

Gloves and hive tools used when working a colony with AFB are not cleaned before use in another colony.

Later, when beekeepers realized that they could get lighter, sweeter honey by placing beehives near particular crops like clover, alfalfa, and citrus, the wild honey collected in forests went first to mead, while more refined, cultivated honey was preferred as a sweetener.

felt my face relax into a smile of distinct pleasure—nay, call it by name: pure joy. For of all the rules of beekeeping, Rule Three is prime: Never, ever, cease to feel wonder.

I became a slightly daft traveler, obsessed with beekeeping and professing to know all there was to know on the topic. I started arguments so others would correct me and speak of beekeepers they had known.

It isn't too bad for me as when I don't have a beehive, I can go incognito in my scruffs.

women made the best beekeepers 'cause they have a special ability built into them to love creatures that sting.

Do you think I could keep bees one day?" I asked. August said, "Didn't you tell me this past week one of the things you loved was bees and honey? Now, if that's so, you'll be a fine beekeeper. Actually, you can be bad at something, Lily, but if you love doing it, that will be enough." The

I realized I had it made because you don't have to destroy anything to get honey. You can just use the same things over and over again, put it in a quart canning jar, and you've got $12.

The only time I ever believed that I knew all there was to know about beekeeping was the first year I was keeping them. Every year since I've known less and less and have accepted the humbling truth that bees know more about making honey than I do.

long ago gave up a number of beekeeping practices conceived with the notion of making bees do certain things that seemed good from a human standpoint but which usually involved radically disrupting the hive. Instead, I watch the bees more, try to understand what they are doing and then see if I can work in a way that will be in keeping with their biology and behavior. I try to create conditions that will make them happy, and then leave them alone as much as possible.

Like many beekeepers, I have discovered a dose of bee venom from a sting alleviates the symptoms of arthritis,

Bees are forgiving animals, and will tolerate a good deal of rearrangement in their lives for whatever new fad sweeps the beekeeping industry—plastic foundation and frames, double queen management, tar-paper wraps for winter—but the best beekeepers I know are those who let the bees themselves, not equipment manufacturers, be their teachers.

Los visitantes con esperanzas puestas en el comercio apícola me resultan interesantes y conmovedores; muchos son jóvenes y despiertan a la madre que hay en mí. Suelen tener trabajos aburridos que detestan, y la idea de poseer una granja con abejas en el campo es para ellos una fantasía reconfortante. Procuro no desanimarlos, pero a veces no me queda más remedio. En estos tiempos, casi cualquier tipo de trabajo rural condena a los novatos a la bancarrota.

I was named Beekeeper of the Year by the Florida State Beekeeping Association.

Things that cannot long be kept secret: death in the family, the loss of a ring, corruption of the spirit, boredom, illicit love. Sickness. Addiction. Pregnancy. Within the pure white wimple of her beekeeping suit, wrapped in buzzing,