This year has been the biggest head-scratcher for beekeeping for me in all the years I’ve bee-kept. One hive started strong and ended stronger. Another hive started weak and stayed weak. And I re-queened it. I went through it. I looked. I kept finding eggs and everything looked fine. I’d close it up, I’d look again. It made two frames of honey. That is all. I have no idea.

– Suzanne Connolly Howes

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People say that beekeepers are weird but I don’t think so. No, the beekeepers I know are actually all very different.

– Mery Molenaar

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I don’t ever remember not wanting to keep bees. So I can’t really remember how I came to it. It was just from the garden.

– Julie Finley

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It takes a certain amount of strength. And that’s my one problem because I’m not large. Being a smaller woman, it’s hard but you can figure out ways to do just about all of it.

– Marge McLellan

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Honey: it transports me backwards. I can’t even explain it. It all tastes differently depending on what kind of flower sources are used. Whatever my bees have is what tastes really good to me.

– Ruth Eastman

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I started walking around the farm and noticing that at ten in the morning they were in the eucalyptus tree. And at two in the afternoon they were in the garden with the raspberries. And I started realizing that flowers flower at different times. Which makes perfect sense for the bees because if the flowers all flowered at the same time their pollination would get messed up. So the flowers are very clever and the bees follow that.

– Suzanne Connolly Howes

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They’re getting a little mad now. Can you hear that? They’re getting loud. Fed up with me bugging them.

– Mery Molenaar

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If you can be in the moment once in a while you actually can get lost in it.

– Patricia Butler

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The queen is moving and the whole yard is just a cloud of bees and I’ve stood in the middle of that and they just go by me.

– Suzanne Connolly Howes

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I don’t know if I told you this before, how we inherited the hives? Well, my husband had a friend that he worked with who was transferred to Zaire in Africa. He said, “I’ll give you my two beehives.” So we went over and picked them up. I didn’t know a thing about bees or anything . . . We put the beehives in the back of the truck but we didn’t secure them with any bungee cords or anything around them so they wouldn’t come apart. And of course they came apart. (Fortunately we didn’t go on U.S. 36. We went on the back roads.) But by the time we got here the cab of the truck was just full of bees. I jumped out and they came in the house right away. He (my husband) came in and soon we found out he was allergic to bees because he was swollen all over and it was bad. We had to go to the doctor and everything. Se we just sort of ignored the beehives that were out there and we didn’t do anything. He didn’t get near them.

After he passed away I thought, hmm . . . I’m kind of interested in bees. So I started becoming more interested in reading about them. And then I had a friend that was a beekeeper and that was how I just started learning.

– Marge McLellan

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They’re such beautiful creatures in the garden. When you watch them on the sunflower, or you just watch what they’re doing, they’re really intent and focused . . . They’re benevolent when you’re working with them.

– Julie Finley

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I knew very, very little about beekeeping . . . And I did not know any beekeepers when I was growing up. But I just thought it was fascinating and I had the time and wanted to know more about it. It’s been a wonderful experience.

– Mery Molenaar

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I didn’t know any beekeepers when I was growing up. I just thought it was fascinating and I had the time and I wanted to know more about it. I wanted to learn something new.

– Mery Molenaar

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Last year I had both hives swarm. This year I thought, I won’t make that mistake. But I’m still learning. And I’m sure I always will.

– Patricia Butler

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My career is teaching environmental science . . . and of all the programs I’ve ever created, the one that I know has the most impact on people is the bee program because they’re such amazing animals. It helps draw people out of themselves and into an awareness and appreciation of something else.

– Suzanne Connolly Howes

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Beekeeping takes my thoughts away from me and gives them more to something else.

– Marge McLellan

The post Why I’m interested in beekeeping appeared first on Sister Bee.

We’re in these little cubicles and we’re on cell phones all the time and we’re really divorced from the natural world. And an experience of the environment is something people look for on the weekend on their mountain bike or extreme kayaking or whatever. I just realized for myself I need that every day. And so coming to the garden is how I decided to make that fit into my life.

– Julie Finley

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One of the things that’s fascinating to me is how then can be so intent on what they’re doing. Their whole life is committed to getting pollen and nectar. And the nurse bees, before they go out into the field they’re raising the new bees, caring for the larvae, feeding them. I’m just amazed at the world of bees.

– Ruth Eastman

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With a demonstration hive it’s wonderful to see the bees crawl around and to see actual living animals in there.

– Mery Molenaar

The post The demonstration hive appeared first on Sister Bee.

The ability to work with these insects and feel their rhythms, to know what they’re going to do before they do it so you can anticipate swarming, for example, and just being in touch with this fascinating little community, is part of what I mean.

– Patricia Butler

The post There’s so much art appeared first on Sister Bee.

The movement of the bees seemed deliberate. It didn’t seem chaotic. It didn’t seem like just a mass of movement. It seemed deliberate like there was a purpose there.

– Suzanne Connolly Howes

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Part of my love is is that I love the woodworking, working in my wood shop and just . . . working!

– Ruth Eastman

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My son was due in February and the wood for my first hives came in January so I was getting pretty big. And I was getting nervous because I wanted the wood part done before my son was born . . . So I said to my husband, “You need to help me.” I really wanted to do it myself. But I needed some help, so we divided it up.

– Mery Molenaar

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I play with a chamber group that has some flutes, cellos and violas as well as violins and a harpsichord. There’s this amazing sense of unity when everybody plays together . . . I think I just feel a little bit transported and I can’t describe anymore clearly what that means.

– Patricia Butler

The post That just sounded neat appeared first on Sister Bee.

My goal for this year is to get that one hive looking like it’s solid and strong again and setting them up so they’re in good shape for the winter. I’m not thinking I’m going to get very much honey.

– Suzanne Connolly Howes

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If it were warm I’d go out there but it’s too cold to check the bees today.

– Marge McLellan

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Sometimes I’ve opened the box and known, “Oh, that’s a virgin queen.” Then I feel like I’m intruding. If you make a mistake right then and squish the wrong bee, it’s all over.

– Julie Finley

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– Ruth Eastman

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Do you ever go out to your hives and just sit there and watch them?

– Mery Molenaar

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Every year that I beekeep I come away with more awe for them. And every year I manipulate the hive less and less because I feel like they know what they’re doing.

– Suzanne Connolly Howes

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I like to be active. My house is kind of picked up right now but I’ve got a box over there of flower stuff because I’m giving a flower program next week. I’ve got a box here and a box there. I’m just interested in a lot of things and always willing to learn.

– Marge McLellan

The post It’s just the way I am appeared first on Sister Bee.

I think they’re simply benevolent. You know, they’re just working, just like the rest of us.

– Julie Finley

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I thought, “Oh, well that’ll be fun!”

– Marge McLellan

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Some people say that beekeepers are weird but I don’t think so. The beekeepers I know are actually all very different.

– Mery Molenaar

The post The beekeepers I know appeared first on Sister Bee.

The other thing that I find just amazing is how they can start from scratch and make twenty frames of comb in a matter of just weeks.

– Patricia Butler

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I heard this buzzing, this incredible sound in the air, and there were thousands of bees. I went, “Oh my gosh! They’ve swarmed out of the hive!” and just stood there watching them. I know I must have been crying because I thought of all the work it took (to move the feral colony into the hive) and now they’ve left in about thirty seconds… I called my friend Mark, my bee mentor, and told him what happened and he said, “Well, go get ‘em!”

– Ruth Eastman

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– Mery Molenaar

The post I feel confident appeared first on Sister Bee.

There are a lot of different opinions and people will give you different advice… and that is in itself interesting. But ultimately, as an individual, you have to make the decision about what you’re going to do (with your bees).

– Patricia Butler

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I’m a gardener. I’m not so much into flowers but I’m into vegetables and things that I can eat… That’s my small contribution… Raising my own food, not using sprays, trying to conserve on gasoline and heat and energy right here.

– Marge McLellan

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Let’s say the creator is a beautiful mother. She doesn’t love one of her babies more than the next one, right? She loves them differently, maybe. But she loves them equally. And, you know, we can imagine any kind of creator we want… So from my world view I guess that just because we’re human doesn’t mean we have any more of God’s love than that butterfly that just went by. He loves us all the same. Or she loves us all the same.

– Julie Finley

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It appeals to me, to be outside working the bees and watching them.

– Ruth Eastman

The post It appeals to me appeared first on Sister Bee.

An experience of the environment is something people look for on the weekend on their mountain bike or doing extreme kayaking or whatever. I just realized, for myself, that I need to experience the environment every day. So coming to the garden is how I decided to make that fit into my life.

– Julie Finley

The post Coming to the garden appeared first on Sister Bee.

Somebody said to me one time, “You do massage, why in the world would you do woodworking? What if you cut off your finger or hand or something?” To me, doing massage, doing woodworking, and when I stop and think about it, working with the bees, I’m working with my hands. I’m physically involved as well as emotionally involved. It makes total sense to me that I’m engrossed in all three of those things.

– Ruth Eastman

The post Working with my hands appeared first on Sister Bee.

Half the time I go in there, I don’t know what they’re doing. I don’t know if I’m reading them right. But I know they know what they’re doing. It’s very clear.

– Suzanne Connolly Howes

The post They know what they’re doing appeared first on Sister Bee.

It’s like church in there isn’t it? I mean, it’s sacred in there. I guess, for me, in a box of bees, you don’t have to explain yourself. You don’t have to understand everything that’s going on. Everything they do eventually makes sense even if I don’t understand it at the time. All of that to me is feminine.

– Julie Finley

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It seems like I should be able to have friendlier bees, but sometimes they’re not.

– Ruth Eastman

The post Sometimes they’re not appeared first on Sister Bee.

A friend once said it takes a year or two for people to decide whether or not to stick with beekeeping. For some people it’s too much work. Other people get hooked. I’m definitely hooked.

– Patricia Butler

The post Hooked appeared first on Sister Bee.

I don’t sell my honey. I give it to my friends and family and the people who love it are the ones who get the most. I love giving away honey to people who really appreciate it.

– Suzanne Connolly Howes

The post I love giving away honey appeared first on Sister Bee.

Oh, jeez, look at all this honey!

– Julie Finley

The post Honey appeared first on Sister Bee.

It’s like entering a different world.

– Ruth Eastman

The post A different world appeared first on Sister Bee.

The most intriguing thing about bees for me is the way they communicate with one another. The way they build their comb, the hexagonal shape, it’s fascinating how well they work together. It’s a really determined, direct way of living.

– Mery Molenaar

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It’s just wonderful to see them! When I take the cover off the hive I’m just fascinated to watch them go about their jobs, working so hard. They know exactly what to do.

– Marge McLellan

The post I just like to see the bees living and doing well appeared first on Sister Bee.

It’s a slow speed. You don’t answer the phone. You don’t do anything else while you’re with them. You just get lost, I mean hours… I can be with those bees for three or four hours, come in and realize I missed lunch, it’s three hours later, but I don’t care!

– Ruth Eastman

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Some of the hardest lessons, the best lessons, have come from making dumb mistakes.

– Patricia Butler

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I didn’t know anything about bees and I was scared about getting stung because as a kid I had kicked a yellow jacket nest and I had gotten probably a hundred stings on my body. I was actually really nervous about getting in and working them the first time because I didn’t know what they would do. I wore two pairs of pants, a long turtleneck, another shirt and then the suit and I died because I was really hot!

But I didn’t get stung. And I got fascinated looking at them.

– Suzanne Connolly Howes

The post What I wore appeared first on Sister Bee.

My dad was a beekeeper. He had been a beekeeper way before I was born and still kept bees as I was growing up. I remember bees in the backyard because I remember being stung once. I put a bouquet of flowers in my pocket and got stung. It was pretty painful but it always stuck with me.

– Ruth Eastman

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It’s wonderful to see . . . life!

– Mery Molenaar

The post Life! appeared first on Sister Bee.

I’ve always been interested in bees as pollinators, but when we lived in the city I didn’t think I had to worry that much about them. When we moved out here it was my intention to plant fruit trees. So in the back of my mind I thought it would be important to keep bees.

– Patricia Butler

The post Pollinators appeared first on Sister Bee.