Hello! Son of a Beekeeper here!

[BEEZ]

Hi.

I am a son of a Beekeeper.

Dad has been gone some years now, he spent about 55 years in commercial Beekeeping. I remember dad and I delivering barrels of honey at 15 cents/pound. Those where the days. Gas was 28.7cents a gallon at the gas station. Oh, that was around 1969 in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area.

I spent many days as a little boy climbing around the warehouse of A.G.Woodman bee supplies in Grand Rapids. I was chased out of the warehouse a few times by Mr.Woodman. I accidentally knocked stacks of supplies over by climbing on them..I think he was my babysitter at times.
Good old Mr Woodman sold out to Dadants (if memory serves me).

I spent my first forty-one years being stung from the tips of my toes and heals up to the now thinning crop. I Think, I have been stung any place you could imagine. :)

These days I spend my time at a local university studying Environmental Biology.

Good grief, that is all we need is another biologist. :lookout:

I have no colonies but have held on to my hive tool and bee-veil.. You never know when a stray colony will need saving.

Any-way, I just wanted to say hello!

Later....


jos:)

[Noelle]

Hi Jos,

Thanks for sharing those great memories of bees and your father. You sound like an excellent candidate for the obsession that is beekeeping. Keep that hive tool and veil!

-Noelle

[Batman]

Hey Jos, welcome to the addiction. My dad was a beekeeper too, but not in the commercial trade, more of just a hobby I think. Back when I was about my sons age (4 yrs old) some idiot decided that beehives were great for shotgun target practice and my dad opted out....notta bad idea since he's deathly allergic. I do remember going out to the hives with him and he has a fond memory me at about 3 years old. I guess I got out of the truck and caught a bee by the wings so that it couldn't sting me and walked out to where he was in full gear and me in shorts only, I got his attention, showed him my catch and said "bee dad!" Well, 34 years later, I caught my first swarm, bought a hive 2 months later, and now I have captured my 2nd swarm. This has been great and I love every minute of it as just about anyone else on this forum does.
Now, finish taking the jump and GO GET SOME BEES! :)

C2