Ok, what got you into beekeeping?

[beepro]

BeeGhost, here is more...

Memories took me as far far back. When I was in elementary school, I think at the 5th grade, there was a swarm of honey bees up the tree by the school playground. At recess, we were all fascinated by the bees. The kids not knowing anything took off their shoes and threw at the swarm. About 5 or 6 shoes went at the same time. No hall monitor at that time yet or they were not there when this happened. Some bees dropped off the branches and then flew back to the swarm again. It was an amazing sight to see them flying up and fallen again when the shoes hit them.
When it was my turn to get closer, it was another story. Someone threw the shoes so close at the swarm that a big chunk of bees fell off and flew everywhere all over the kids. Some had landed on my head as well other children too. We all quickly scrambled off. I got stung on my head 2 times right in the middle. And so was some other kids too. During this time the hall monitor were there also. She got bees flying around all over her head and clothes. You guess it! A normal human being reaction was to brush off the bees like hitting a fly with their hands. But she still trying to move the children away from the danger as possible. Yep, we all ran like crazy. I got stung and didn't tell anybody until today. Good thread to start.
Maybe that was the seed that started it all? But it is the connection and learning that keep the fire still burning
after all those....

Gosh, still get sting even til now.... Just got stung 2 days ago by one honey bee and at night time too. Heee, he!

[RichardsonTX]

A commercial beek kept hives on my parents property and I've always wanted my own bees. One of my customers re-ignited my interest a couple of years ago. Now I have a bunch of hives myself and wanting more..........lol. I'm still trying to figure out where I'm going with all this but I know I'll always have bees from now on regardless of what I do.

[ImaNewBeeToThis]

Playing call of duty black ops. Someone I was playing with talked about his hive and I've been researching since. We will know if I have what it takes here in a couple months.

[BeeGhost]

Playing call of duty black ops. Someone I was playing with talked about his hive and I've been researching since. We will know if I have what it takes here in a couple months.

That's funny you mention video games and bees! My kids are into a computer game called Minecraft, one evening they got all excited and called me into their room to show me that they could be beekeepers on it! Little computer generated bees and hives!

[Joel]

I'm standing in my garden with two friends, it's April and peas are up. One is a farrier, the other a locksmith and beekeeper. The farrier tells me I ought to get bees and my garden would do better. I tell him I hate getting stung and would rather starve. A week later the locksmith brings over a hive set up, takes me to buy a package of bees it took me 3 whole weeks to kill. ( I never thunk I'd have feed bees on foundation in the spring) 20 years later, 10 gazillion dollars and 15 bazillion miles hauling bees and honey all over creation I'm running a few hundred colonies of bees full time with my son and loving it most days.
As to the friends, I doubt I'll ever forgive either of them!

[Acebird]

My ranch raises grass fed, free range cattle like the ones your ancestors ate.

Any chance you ship to NY? My ex co worker who supplied us beef is no where to be found.

Ok, what got me into beekeeping....
MY WIFE! She wanted her gardens pollinated and surfed the net on how to keep bees and became overwhelmed. She got the bright idea I would like beekeeping and forced me into it. I was seriously afraid of bee stings.
I won't say she is always right but sometimes she gets lucky. Dang Irishmen.
I have to admit I never thought I would ever get attached to a stinging insect but they kinda grow on ya.
The gardens, the bees, the grass fed meat, it is so not me. Now all you guys got to suffer because I am going to live longer.

[RABray]

My wife and I finished watching a documentary on bees which documented problems they were experiencing and suggested people take up bee keeping to help. My wife turned and said "why don't you try that?" I proceeded to spend hundreds of hours researching the subject and then bought my first three hives. Four months later I picked up my three nucs.

Today I went out to check on a few of my hives and again felt the same intense amazement with them I felt three years ago as I gazed upon my first nucs, and how they persevere in the face of so many bad odds. I cannot foresee my not caring for the girls in my future...

[BeeGhost]

It amazes me that most of you are like me and just thought you would give it a try, I mean why not, right!! And even more amazing are those that started just for fun and then turned it into a serious sideliner or commercial business!! I also like hearing about a relative passing down the business to others and hope that continues for generations to come, I hope my kids learn and like it enough to keep this going as well!

I don't plan on having hundreds of hives.............at least anytime soon, but would like to dabble in the side business part such as queen rearing and selling nucs, and of course honey as a byproduct!!LOL

Thanks again for everyone's stories, I enjoy reading them!! And Acebird, your correct, as much as I hate getting stung, watching the hives trials and tribulations keeps me coming back for more!!

[ckannmacher]

A coworker of mine came in to the office one day with a chunk of comb honey and had it on toast. He offered me some of it and at first I said no thanks, because I really don't care for honey all that well (crazy I know). Since I will try anything once I tasted some and it wasn't half bad. Then we got into bee talk. I asked a few questions and then he mentioned he used to have a few hives about 15 20 years ago. That really got my attention. And just like almost anyone I talk to, I asked question after question and the interest grew. I bought a couple hives but had to wait a year on bees since it was already March, plus I needed to do more research. So I spent the year studying up on everything. My family thought I was nuts but that didn't bother me. I got my packages in May and so far so good. During the whole process I posted pictures on facebook for my friends to see and keep everyone updated. Little did I know that it would get so much attention from them. Anytime I see someone they are always asking how the bees are doing. Then it becomes a game of 20 questions, but I love every second of it. Sometimes I get that "your crazy" look from them but the more we talk the more interested they become. This is one hobby I don't think I will ever get tired of. Planning on expanding this year and my coworker who got me interested is going to get a hive or two and get back into the game.

[Finorknerbee]

Large swarm worked it's way down a long driveway past a large barn and into a field where my buddy was to be married about 10 minutes later. Some saw it as a bad omen. Most of us found it fascinating, and the justice who performed the ceremony calmed everyone down and said to wait them out, and that they would settle out in a tree before too long. Sure enough, they balled up in a tree behind the back row of chairs (outdoor wedding, reception in barn). The justice happened to be a beek, came back the next day and hived the cluster. Coolest thing I ever saw. Been keeping bees and catching swarms ever since. Kind of addicting

[oldiron56]

Ace dont ever critisize your wife`s judgments,,,look who she married

[oldiron56]

Large swarm worked it's way down a long driveway past a large barn and into a field where my buddy was to be married about 10 minutes later. Some saw it as a bad omen. Most of us found it fascinating, and the justice who performed the ceremony calmed everyone down and said to wait them out, and that they would settle out in a tree before too long. Sure enough, they balled up in a tree behind the back row of chairs (outdoor wedding, reception in barn). The justice happened to be a beek, came back the next day and hived the cluster. Coolest thing I ever saw. Been keeping bees and catching swarms ever since. Kind of addicting

that was neat

[NasalSponge]

Back in the 80's the wife and I were doing a bit of "self sufficiency" stuff like having our kids at home, homeschooling, big garden, stuff like that. It seemed like a good thing to do so I found a larger scale beekeeper and he took me out to western Oklahoma to a trailer of bees he had. I was standing there surrounded by a huge cloud of bees.....everything seemed to go into slow motion. Right then and there I fell deeply in love with the beautiful bugs and have been ever since.

[Michael Palmer]

Put yourself in my place. I had two colonies of bees. 5000 taps in the rented sugarwoods. Gathered sap days, boiled sap nights. Soaking wet up to my butt all the time. Feet wrinkly and chapped...wife found out I was using my chap stick on my toes. She didn't want to borrow it anymore.

Watching all those little bubbles, bubbles, bubbles. And bees gather the sap. And bees boil the sap. And bees package the sap....

What am I doing here at 2 am watching all those little bubbles??

[Gus979]

Once when I was a kid and visiting my grandmother's boathouse my brother managed to slam a door into a very large hornet nest (we thought they were wasps at that time though). My brother got by pretty unscathed, because he managed to find a room within the boathouse to close a door. However, I pretty much walked right in at the same time that the hornet nest went into code red.
I'd say that in my sprint back to the house I managed to get stung a fair amount of times- like I need to lie on the floor and not move for several hours stung.

About a year ago when I lived in denver I used to spend a lot of time hanging out on my patio at my apartment complex. That patio and for some reason, most of my apartment complex, seemed to be a huge draw for wasps- lots of little paper hives all over the place. I should have freaked out because of my previous experiences, but since I was usually absorbed in a book I rarely noticed the odd wasp that would land on my arm.

When I did notice however, I did panic a bit consitering the hornet incident, but since I was regularly landed on and not stung I began to get curious and would try to take a closer look at the wasps. They are pretty cool little things, and I wondered at the fact that none of them were stinging me. From what I could tell, they were curious about me as well.

In fact, at one point I discovered a wasp nest in my trailer hitch. I hooked that trailer hitch up no problem with wasps flying around me. I actually felt kind of guilty because after I drove off and came back later that day all of the wasps from their paper nest were gone.

I was amazed at how docile they were, as long as I was calm. I googled them and to my suprise...found out that there is something just like them that is even more docile AND gives me free honey- Honey bees.

I kind of wish I could keep wasps too though .

[Acebird]

Watching all those little bubbles, bubbles, bubbles. And bees gather the sap. And bees boil the sap. And bees package the sap....

What am I doing here at 2 am watching all those little bubbles??

Ah Michael, you boiled sap? You neglected to modernize. That is why there are less commercial honey producing beekeepers in this country.

What the heck is syrup today 50-60 bucks a gallon. We use to buy if for 3.

[Splatt]

My grandmother was a beek. I loved sitting by the hives and watching the bees come and go.

[bobbarker]

I can't really point to any one thing that made me want to be a beek. I've never known anyone else who had bees (until I got some, then I met people that had been doing it before), I had never had raw honey, and I didn't grow up on a farm. In fact, my only encounters with bees before I got them were mostly negative (either stings, or fear of stings.)

I wish I could have had a picture of my wife's face the day I blurted out, "I think I'd like to get some bee hives."

The only line of reasoning I can come up with is naturalism. I love being outdoors, I have a 26 acre farm in the heart of amish country, and I am a firm believer in conservation of our great outdoors, so, it made sense to me to have bees. I love the idea of giving back to the environment while getting so much out of it, and they help my fruit trees (8 and counting), my Garden, my berries, and I get to collect all that sweet, sweet honey. Plus, it's fun and so incredibly relaxing to work my bees.

I guess I just stumbled into bees, in a very good way.

And I forgot to mention, luck of luck, when my wife told her parents what I had said, her father got very excited, and gave me a book he had bought YEARS ago on beekeeping, because he had thought about getting them before finding out he was allergic. Even luckier for me, he's a master craftsman and has been very excited to help me build all sorts of bee things, along with being a sawyer with his own mill. So, we cut down, mill up, kiln dry lumber for bee boxes, and he helped me this last summer to build an extractor. He's been almost as happy as I have been, because he kind of gets to keep bees by proxy.

[John R C]

Got my Beekeeping Merit Badge in 96 and 3 yrs ago decided to give it a try again

[Gypsi]

Some pest control outfit killed every bee for miles taking the bees from a renthouse half a block from me in June 2010. I didn't see another tomato until October 2010. I bought bees in March 2011. Had many adventures and got hooked.