Becoming a Beekeeper - Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper - page 13

product to be used, since reports link it to massive honeybee losses. The overuse of
many other chemicals and antibiotics are also found to compromise the immune sys-
tems of the honeybee.
There are many ongoing efforts to breed a hygienic or nearly perfect honeybee that
willhavethequalitiestowithstanddiseases,pests,andpesticides.Butuntilthoseefforts
are successful, the declining bee population stemming from CCD and increased cost of
maintaininghoneybeesonlyaddtothedifficultiescommercialbeekeepersalreadyface.
For example, the unfair practice of shipping inferior-quality and counterfeit honey, that
may not actually be pure, from countries like Canada, Argentina, Australia, and Ch-
ina. In 2008, major retailers and commercial users of honey purchased tons of Chinese
honey for $0.20 per pound, while it cost domestic beekeepers around $1.00 per pound
to make their honey. Who can compete with that?
• • •
M UCH OF THIS INFORMATION , including the details of pollination, the vital role honey-
bees play in U.S agriculture, and the challenges commercial beekeepers face has been
imparted to me over the years by speakers at the BYBA meetings. I had no idea how
much the honeybees had to offer humans and the planet. During the lecture I heard at
my first meeting, I jotted down notes about pollination, along with a few doodles of
flowers and honeybees. A recurring sketch was a queen bee wearing a crown and hold-
ing a scepter; her attendants glided around her and their hive. These would be the first
of many drawings and notes I would include in my bee journal.
A woman to my left glanced over at my doodles. We exchanged smiles, and after
the guest speaker's talk, she introduced herself as Mary. I told her I was an illustrator
turned beekeeper; she said she was an accountant turned beekeeper.We both laughed at
finding another soul disenchanted with her nine-to-five job. Mary told me she had been
keeping bees for three years and still considered herself a beginner. She also told me
how honeybees offered her a spiritual pastime and that beekeepers were a passionate
and knowledgeable groupwhoare always willing to lend a hand and offer advice based
on their own experience. This goodwill was contagious, and Mary now found herself
offering her bee wisdom as a mentor to newer beekeepers. “How generous and kind,”
I thought. In a world of takers, here was a place where some people gave selflessly. It
seemed that nature and honeybees had this effect on humans. I got the feeling that there
was a true sense of sharing within this community of like-minded people.
I asked Mary where the honey swap took place and was directed to an old wooden
table, were seven beekeepers hovered, eyeballing honey jars of various shapes and
sizes. The colors of the honeys varied as well, from light to medium to dark. Some had