The Secret Life of Bees

My bee-keeping class was great. The crowd was a little different than I expected: more farmers than hippies. I learned so much. It was definitely worth while to go. Now, I have to make a decision: to keep or not to keep. I have to make a decision by March 16th in order to get my bee order in for the season.


The pros: It is fairly low maintenance. Yes, I have to check the bees every 10-14 days, but I shouldn't be in the hive for more than 15 minutes at a time. I will be helping the Earth. Maybe my neighbor's dog will stop barking if he is stung enough times.


The cons: It is kind of expensive. It's not the price of a car, but I was expecting a couple of hundred of dollars and be done with it. Not exactly. People may stop coming to my house because of the bees and my neighbors may be a wee bit upset with me. Then there are the odd things like cutting my lawn in my bee suit. Will my neighbors need to borrow the bee suit to cut their lawn too? Every hive should potentially produce 5 gallons of honey per year. What am I going to do with all that honey?

I looked online for used equipment, but had no luck. The drawback with used equipment is that typically people sell equipment after their hive dies and they don't want to start over. Why does the hive die? Typically some sort of disease and they disease can linger on the equipment. I may buy tainted equipment, and then end up buying new stuff later.

My solution right now is to apply for a grant. If I receive the grant to have bees, my answer is clear. If I don't receive the grant, I will try again next year.