Back in the saddle again

Two new nucs installed 4-24-26

It is always a humbling experience to have to start over in the spring with new nucs. Especially with a new provider who asks,"Have you ever kept bees before?". Then proceeds to give advice different than what I have done for 20 years and seems dismayed that I probably will keep with what works for me. Ah, when I started beekeeping there was a running joke that was voiced at most bee meetings. It goes like this - "If you ask ten beekeepers a question how many answers will you get?" The punch line is - "Eleven, because when you get back around to the first beekeeper they have changed their mind." We always laughed because beekeeping is very individual and each person has their "method" that really does work for them, but when you get two or more beekeepers trying to manage the same hives, disaster usually ensued. We discovered this when we first started a club apiary for the Kalamazoo Bee Club and tried to rotate three differnent beekeepers taking turns caring for the hives. They died because each successive person would undo what the previous person did. So, we learned to respect one another and let each other keep their bees their way. Unfortunately that thinking is not acceptable in the greater beekeeping world today. Every single thing I read coming from any bee club or state organization says you MUST do everything the same or you are an irresponsible beekeeper. It is sad because what makes beekeeping so fun is the way you can express the individuality of your personality in your beekeeping style.

So, I start again. I did not talk much to the provider of my bees. I did not feel the kindred spirit was there, and was not in the mood to be judged for my irresponsible ideas. So far, the bees seem happy and are acting just as they should. It has been a good spring, lots of water and much bloom. I have not opened the hives to check them yet, I want to give them a little more time to establish and settle in. Yes, I know, that is one of my irresponsible quirks. I let the bees figure out life for themselves rather than trying to micromanage them. In the world I started beekeeping in, that was OK. Maybe the rest of the beekeepers disagreed, but they had their quirky ideas as well and respected you for having ideas of your own and for acting on them. After all, people willing to work with stinging insects must be a little crazy, right? For Christmas I got a shirt from a bee supply company that had the overlapping circles of a ven diagram. The one side said, "Farmer", the other side said, "Crazy Person" and the overlapping section in the middle said, "Beekeeper". That sums it up for me!