About

Early Exposure, Late Beginnings

As I remember it, at an early age in Rural New Brunswick we spent many weekends visiting my grandfather’s farm just outside the village of Petitcodiac and just as often my great uncle’s farm in Wheaton Settlement. Farms back then were a jewel to a small boy with diversity of livestock and mysteries of nature present around every corner. Spring brought the sounds of newborn sheep, cattle, chicks and the buzzing of bees busy tending to their business. The landscape was different then with many fields appearing as the calm ocean surface with the gracefully rolling and flowing clover. The apple, cherry and pear trees, wild strawberries and blueberries along with the bouquets of wildflowers were growing everywhere around the farm and roadside. Orchards promised delicious fall bounty with blossoms glistening in the morning dew ready to be pollinated.  The farm kitchen smelling like Heaven with a hint of wood smoke, fresh baked bread, ginger bread cookies and that glass of fresh milk.

The community center was more often than not the local church or the neighbor’s kitchen. My great uncle’s farm was in my definition a village unto itself with a workshop, tool shed, butcher shop, barn, and just about every other building and room typical of what any pioneer village must have had.

Bees were the mystery to me as they were everywhere yet only privileged people got to work with them at the hive. Honey was natural in every respect in fact I don’t ever recall hearing of “feeding” or medicating bees, a standard practice so often used today. Fields, hills and forests were full of natural food sources and farming seemed to compliment the needs of bees. The value of bees was regarded as a necessity to farming, the sweet reward, a stable of everyday life. Nature couldn’t exist without bees and vice versa my father once said and without both of them, neither can we!

My great uncle promised me that one day he would let me work with him and the bees and having no children teased me often that if I worked hard and learned well that one day I could very well take over the farm.  My passion to be my great uncles apprentice beekeeper (farmer) was inspired by the fact that it seemed like such a right of passage.  I couldn’t grow old enough, quick enough, to experience the mystery of bees…

Then “it” happened, the sudden and unexpected death of my great uncle changed a lot of things around the farm quickly. My great aunt, a strict, hard working, old style school teacher maintained farm living until very late in life but after my great uncle’s death the farm was never the same. As I understood listening to my great aunt, the intentions were that my father would eventually take over the farm. Unfortunately he also died early at age of 52 due to hip surgery complications. I was a teenager living in Ontario and hopes of one day owning a piece of Wheaton Settlement, beekeeping and farming had pretty much been lost.

Fast forward a decade or so and I had bought a small acreage farm just outside of Stratford Ontario supported by my full time Foundry job that I still enjoy and work at today. A farm seemed like a perfect environment to raise a family. An opportunity 7 years later (1995) to purchase a larger acreage and sell the small acreage just made sense so despite the risk we went for it. We added a small rainbow trout raceway to allow us to have a small Aquaculture operation and add a little income and finally we started to think about beekeeping.

Paul Kelly was teaching a weekend “intro to beekeeping” course at the University of Guelph. My previous exposure to a weekend course “getting started in Aquaculture” convinced me that the University of Guelph was the right place to start and so I enrolled.  To be quite honest I was a little bit overwhelmed by the content and knowledge he had to share. One could hardly find a better instructor who clearly articulated his passion for bees and beekeeping. Infectious to the core, I knew I just had to find enough money to buy a hive and get started learning about bees first hand.

Today the University of Guelph have an extensive catalog of YouTube beekeeping instructional and training videos. I would encourage anyone interested to search out and watch these videos with excellent instruction from Paul and others. Still nothing beats “hands on” instruction where there are opportunities to ask questions and get answers. If you are fortunate enough to be mentored by an experienced beekeeper do it! Be patient if you can and work alongside or simply observe the experienced beekeeper. Most importantly, learn to be comfortable while working with bees as it is an important first step. Seeing hive activities, learning of their habits and behaviors, listening to their sounds, and hearing/seeing what they are telling you is much easier once you are comfortable around them. Don’t try to be a hero! Wearing proper protective clothing even if you do feel it is unnecessary early on is an important step in becoming comfortable. You don’t know if a pesky skunk has them agitated from the night before!

Today’s environment is much different than those days in the late 60’s and 70’s and new pests and diseases along with different cropping practices and high land values add challenges early beekeepers never experienced. Intervention is sometimes necessary and may challenge your principles but remember that in today’s environment what was once natural has likely been touched or exposed to the unnatural. Learning to adapt, to work together, using best management practices and being proactive can go a long way in successful beekeeping.

We are so fortunate to be beekeepers and have a role to play in sustainable beekeeping practices. Certainly we hope we can assist you and others to experience the joy of helping sweet things happen naturally.