Why Beekeeping?

by Marge Trocki, Interpretive Naturalist and beekeeper at Lyman Woods

Marge inspecting the hives in the
Lyman Woods beeyard.

I am often asked why I would take up a hobby that entails working in the midst of thousands of buzzing bees, with the bulk of the work being done in the heat of the summer. If I had to sum it up in one word it would be that it is fascinating! A few years back I took a beginning beekeeping class to see what it was all about. Before I knew it I was ordering bees and building my own hive, thinking it would be great to have one in my backyard and to harvest honey for myself, family and friends.  Unless you are a beekeeper you may not understand the beekeeping fever many of us are prone to, but, by the end of my third season I had three dozen active hives!

There are many reasons that beekeeping can be such a fascinating hobby. It seems the more I learn about honeybees and how they function as social insects, the more intrigued I am with these small but very important insects. It is amazing that they are responsible for pollinating about one-third of our food that sustains us. For that reason alone, I promote beekeeping, especially with the recent decline of honeybees and the many challenges they face in this day and age. Of course, they also provide us with a most delicious product – honey!

Beekeeping is not a cut and dry hobby. There are many variables to contend with and many different methods of management to choose from. It is these challenges that drive me to put all the time and energy that I do into keeping bees. Then, of course, there’s that zone you enter in the bee yard – that feeling of peace and contentment in the midst of busy bees flying around and crawling on all over you!

With all this said, I feel very fortunate that beekeeping is now part of my regular duties as Naturalist here at Lyman Woods. Since we started the apiary in the Spring I have had the pleasure of teaching our first Junior Beekeepers Camp for kids. I look forward to our fall Honey Harvest program for families and the Taste of Honey program for adults. If any of this bee talk has sparked an interest with you, “bee” on the look-out for the upcoming Beginning Beekeeping class that will take place this winter, along with other fun bee-related programs.