For a few years, I have been tending several colonies of domestic honeybees. The hives are at our son’s farm, a couple of miles from our house. I have a spreadsheet on my computer that tracks my expenses and records the amount of honey I harvest. I am not disciplined at tracking my expenses, and sometimes forget to record them. I do know that I am not producing a profit. I spend more money on the bees than the honey they produce is worth. My goal is not profit. I don’t keep bees as a source of income. Nonetheless, tending bees is considered an agricultural practice by the Washington State Department of Agriculture. My colonies are registered, and I hold a state license to keep them.

One of the sayings that I often repeat is: “The only reason to keep bees is because you are fascinated by them. If you want honey, make friends with a beekeeper.”

In ancient times, bees weren’t kept. Wild colonies were discovered, and people developed techniques for harvesting honey. Many of those techniques involved killing the bees. At some point, those who observed bees began to develop methods of keeping the bees in a predictable location. They discovered designs for hives that attracted bees and allowed for the harvesting of a portion of the honey without disrupting the brood. They learned about how new queens are produced and colonies are split.

In nature, honeybee hives are generally located in trees, off the ground. Early beekeepers sought locations to keep their hives off the ground. Church roofs and towers became sought-after locations. In the process, a tradition of priests and pastors keeping bees formed. A Congregational Minister developed the most popular design of modern beehives. Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth was a nineteenth-century minister in Massachusetts who recognized the concept of bee space. In hives, bees leave a minimum space that is not sealed to allow them to move about within the hive. Earlier beekeepers recognized this space, but Langstroth utilized the concept to design rectangular frames inserted into boxes in a manner that allows the bees to leave the frames separate, enabling the beekeeper to withdraw an individual frame. The standard in commercial beekeeping is a box of ten frames. An active hive typically consists of two deep boxes, each containing a total of 10 frames. Once the colony is established, a grate that is large enough to allow worker bees to pass through but fine enough to prevent the queen from doing so is placed on top of the two boxes, with another box, generally shallower, called a super, on top. The bees use the upper chamber to store honey. Because the queen cannot enter that space, no eggs are laid in the cells in the super. The beekeepers remove the frames from the super and harvest the honey. This system is known as a Langstroth hive.

I have traditional Langstroth hives and one horizontal hive. It is the same principle, but instead of stacking the boxes, a single set of frames is placed side by side with the queen excluder inserted as a divider in the hive.

Beekeeping is a craft that is often passed down from one generation to the next. Many beekeepers learned their skills from a parent who kept bees. Commercial operations are often family businesses with multiple generations working together. Beekeeping as a career requires a great deal of practical knowledge but less formal schooling than some other careers. However, commercial beekeeping has been threatened by several factors in recent years. One of the significant problems is the varroa mite. The tiny creatures can result in the demise of a colony within a short period of time. There are chemical treatments, but commercial and amateur apiaries often see losses as high as 35 - 40% despite treatment. This is frustrating for amateurs, and it removes the profit margin from commercial operations.

Commercial beekeepers often don’t make the majority of their profit from honey sales. They provide bees for the pollination of other crops and are paid to place colonies in farmers’ fields. Bees are often trucked from one location to another. It is common for bees to spend the winter in Arizona among almond trees and summer in Washington in alfalfa fields. The costs of transportation must be considered in a business plan. Recent years of drought have resulted in fewer almond producers having sufficient water to sustain their orchards. This has resulted in fewer payments for pollinating bees, thereby reducing the potential for profit from beekeeping.

I have no interest in commercial beekeeping. So far, I have endured the losses of colonies and replaced them by purchasing bees from a local source with connections to California honeybee producers. I do appreciate being able to harvest honey for our family’s use and gifts to friends.

Mostly, however, I am fascinated by the bees. Tending the bees requires some effort in the winter. I feed the bees syrup and ensure that the hives are well-insulated. I have some passive solar heaters that help the bees survive the coldest days. Winters are mild here, and the work of tending bees is light.

Honeybees are unlikely to sting away from the colony. Stings only occur when a bee is stepped on or becomes entangled in a person’s hair or is somehow otherwise threatened. When the neighbors complain that they are being stung by my bees, I put up wasp traps around their place. The offending insects are wasps, not the bees from my colonies. Around the colony, however, it can be a different matter. I try to gauge the stress of the colony when approaching it. If the bees are flying directly at me, as I approach, I know that they are not in a happy mood. Sometimes the best thing to do is to walk away and come back at another time. I like to tend the bees in the mornings or evenings when temperatures are cooler. I have protective clothing that allows me to work with bees when they are more aggressive. I know beekeepers who get stung hundreds of times each year. I am rarely stung, less than 10 times per year. It is another advantage of not being a commercial producer. I can walk away from my hives when I need to.

Chain grocery stores often sell honey from China, Argentina, Brazil, and other countries due to the lower cost. Like other agricultural products, you sometimes have to pay more for locally produced goods. Although I rarely purchase honey, when I do, I make sure it comes from my neighborhood.