In the process of undertaking beekeeping from the ground up, my husband and I have become involved in the local beekeepers’ club. This is a wonderful organization filled with people who have been keeping bees longer than I have been alive, and they are most graciously willing and eager to share their expertise simply by asking. One thing I have observed, however, is the truth that where there are 4 beekeepers, there are at least 6 or 7 opinions on how to do anything, and the phrase “it depends on the time of year, the weather, the…” is oft heard in virtually every discussion in beekeeping.
Much of beekeeping revolves around learning what bees are most likely to do naturally in any given situation and managing that natural behavior on your terms. Those who attempt to change the behavior of their bees are ultimately going to find themselves frustrated as the bees thwart their every move.
I always find it humorous on some level when dealing with any kind of activity that brings man and nature face to face on an interactive basis. While nutritional science, animal husbandry, and horticulture (among many things) have improved the end result over the years, if one is not careful it is easy to get sucked into the misguided belief that – without man’s intervention – that “fill in the blank” would cease to exist. Beekeeping is one of those things, which is profoundly ironic, because the truth of the matter is that bees were doing just fine before man’s intervention almost wiped them out.
Archeologists have discovered harvested honey in the Egyptian tombs, and it is widely believed that “beekeeping” (in whatever form that took) dates back to ancient Egypt. If you buy into the modern mantra that espouses the necessity of man’s involvement, then one is left to wonder: How in the world did bees survive that long before the Egyptians discovered them without human intervention?
I’m American by birth, and Southern by the grace of God, and in the South we’re taught to respect our elders. This gives me a fondness for hearing what “those who have gone before” have to say on the topic at hand, and this is especially true regarding beekeeping. While a lot of the younger beekeepers will prescribe very specific instructions that involve precision and a level of “anal retentiveness” (for lack of a better term) about every little detail, the old-timers just smile and say, “It doesn’t matter all that much.” This is a “no brainer” for me personally. Whose advice do I take? The old guy in his late 60’s who’s been keeping bees since he was a 14-year-old farm boy in west Texas and whose grammar is far less than perfect and whose pronunciations are a little different, or the software developer in his late 30’s with the graduate degree who grew up in San Francisco who has read all the “right” books and journals and done all the Internet research who has been keeping bees for less than 10 years who knows all the scientific terms and speaks in complete, fully diagrammed sentences? My daddy has a saying: “You can work hard, or you can work smart,” and for me, a large part of working smart is taking the time to learn from those who have done it (whatever “it” is) for the longest and is still in the game.
My husband has a saying (I’m surrounded by philosophers <lol>), “Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone,” and we can all certainly find examples that prove this to be true. However, the Bible (widely held to be a book of wisdom, even if you don’t believe it as the Word of God) says, “Wisdom belongs to the aged and understanding to the old.” (Job 12:12 NLT) and “Stand up in the presence of the elderly, and show respect for the aged….” (Lev 19:32 NLT)
While the latest books are interesting and have some great information, and there is tons of information on the Internet, when it comes to beekeeping, I’m stickin’ with the old guy from Texas. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.