If you follow me on twitter, you know that I am starting to keep bees this year. Beekeeping is incredibly interesting and I am stupid-excited about it! My bees will be arriving here at the farm on May 2 or 3 but I’ve already spent several hours in a class offered by my County Extension, read every book I can get my hands on and prepped all my equipment for the big day.
There must be something in the air because beekeeping has suddenly gotten very cool. Bees are this year’s backyard chickens, I guess. New York City recently overturned a long-time ban on keeping bees within the city limits. Even the White House has a hive! The Obamas were the lucky recipients of 134 pounds of their very own honey last year.
I would love to encourage some of you to consider keeping bees, so I’m giving away two copies of The Backyard Beekeeper: An Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yarn and Garden to two of our lucky readers. This book is a great introduction to the world of bees.
All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post telling me why you’re interested in beekeeping. Easy peasy. One comment per person please! Entries close at Midnight on Friday, April 2, 2010. Two winners will be chosen at random and the winner’s names will be posted here on Saturday, April 3. The winners will have 48 hours to contact me with their mailing address to claim their prize.
Good luck!
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Have you ever read the Beekeeper’s Apprentice, by Laurie R. King? a mystery novel, rather than an actual guide book… but it does introduce the idea of a hive mind, which is something I find incredibly fascinating
am interested in beekeeping because I reap the benefit of the bees – more fruits and vegetables from our garden and the possibility of *really* local honey which will also help my allergies!
I want to get into beekeeping because honey is delicious
There are a number of reasons that I want to learn about beekeeping:
1) My desire for raising sheep, chickens, and ducks is currently stymied by the fact that my wife and I live in a condominium.
2) I have a budding patio vegetable garden and I am tired of self-pollinating the buds- why can’t the bees do it for me?
3) I really think that yellow and black are great colors.
4) “Flight of the Bumblebee” is a great piece of music and I want to see if the book includes instructions in regards to training bees to play the song.
5) With bees come honey and with honey comes Winnie the Pooh
6) I want to train bees to attack annoying solicitors and obnoxious neighbors.
Please pick me!
Beekeeping for honey, for my garden and just to watch them work. I loved reading “The Secret Life of Bees” and all that it detailed about bee habits and the comparisons to people’s lives.
I’m interested in beekeeping — simply for the fact that I love honey! Beyond the flavor, there are touted health benefits (including helping allergies) attributed to honey.
Because local honey in my cup of tea is one of my favorite things!
(and my garden would love the bonus pollenators!)
I would love to keep bees for the honey! I’d also appreciate being able to do me own little part in keeping the bee population up and pollinating my garden (that I can’t wait to have some day). I dream of a small-holding when we can afford a place of our own.
Leaving a positive footprint on the earth, gardening, planting trees and bees for my 17 acre gentlewomans farm. I would love to do it right.
Why wouldn’t you be interested in bee keeping?! Bees are fascinating! And important! Sign me up for the draw! We live on a beautiful acre that we are transforming into gardens and homesteading, and there is space for bees!
You will love it! I’ve been keeping bees for a number of years now, not so much for the honey, that’s more of a bonus. They are fascinating, and there is nothing more relaxing than the hum emanating from the hive on a lazy summer day.
I love honey and have the space in my yard that would be perfect for bee keeping. Plus the family that lives in front of me would love more bees for their garden and arbor.
Bees have fascinated me ever since I was a little girl; particularly, their sense of family and community. Every one of the girls has a distinct purpose and they’re so dedicated! The way they create honeycombs, communicate with each other through dance, find pollen, find their way back to the hive, attend to the needs of the greater community is simply wonderous! I empathize with your passion for the little creatures.
I think it’s possible that you’re so taken by the bees, because you’re so much alike!
I would love to win this for my husband. He was raised on a sheep and crop farm, and is feeling the pull “back to the land” and a sustainable lifestyle (so am I!). He has been tapping our maples for syrup the past few years, and now wants to begin keeping bees. Someday we will have sheep too. Thanks for such a great giveaway!
Hey Susan, I keep bees in C’ville and took the same class you did. The folks are great! The bees were my starter livestock for my teeny little urban farm, and now I have added ducks. Would love to have a dairy goat at some point, but that is the future. Good luck with your hive and hopefully, the beekeeping folks have hooked you up with a mentor. It is nice to have someone to run things by the first few times you are in the hive.
I am thinking about keeping bees on my flat roof of my house.
Fresh honey! I think it will help my allergies to eat local honey, too. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Help save the honey bees, pollinate the garden, chill out from everyday stresses, all that delicious honey …. how could you NOT be interested in beekeeping??
Unfortunately, I’m unemployed and I need something to do besides apply for jobs. A little honey money sure wouldn’t hurt! In the past several years I lost many of the people in my life that I took care of…beekeeping will help me keep up my mothering skills,
I’ve always been afraid of bees. Bee stings as a kid have always had me running, screaming and flailing my arms. Pathetic at my age, but what can ya do. But when I read the book, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, I became fascinated with bees and honey. I started tasting different kinds of honey (who knew there were so many). My running, screaming and flailing arms are restricted to wasps these days.
This is the perfect way to break down this ifonrmation.
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