Home on the Range #050: Honey, Bees & Beekeeping – How Sweet It Is!
Adam Scepaniak 09.02.23
Here at AllOutdoor we have discussed how being self-sufficient and procuring a lot of your own food – whether it is harvesting game animals from nature or raising them yourself – is not only rewarding, but it is cleaner, healthier food. Plus, you know exactly where it came from. We have mentioned wild turkey, whitetail deer, Mangalitsa pigs, egg-laying chickens, and next on our list of animals you may want to consider keeping are bees. Yes, honeybees! You not only can get honey from honeybees which is obvious, but you also are ensuring your garden flourishes more from these natural pollinators. Also, as a source of additional income you can sell their honey, beeswax, and the bees themselves. Let’s dive into the pros and cons of beekeeping to see if you want to become a beekeeper!
“Home on the Range” Series Coverage on AllOutdoor
Welcome to our reoccurring series of “Home on the Range.” Here, we would like to share all of our experiences for those who may be homesteading, living off the land, hunting, farming, ranching, and truly investing in nature and the great outdoors. The ability to provide for yourself and your family can be tremendously rewarding and simultaneously difficult at times. So, in “Home on the Range” we want to share our different exploits so you can learn and hopefully we can receive your feedback along the way as well.
If you don’t downright have an aversion, fear, or allergy to bees, we highly recommend you entertain keeping bees; “bee a beekeeper.” When it comes to beekeeping there are a lot of reasons to get into this passionate hobby. For some, it is how therapeutic it can be. Similar to how people can feel entranced and relaxed hearing moving water near a stream or waterfall, the soft buzzing or hum of bees diligently gathering pollen, honey, and working in unison like a masterfully-directed orchestra can be equally relaxing. There are many other reasons that might entice you to give it a try:
We don’t want to paint a false picture that beekeeping is all upside and no downside. There are some things to account for if you want to get into beekeeping. Not all negatives, but some things we wish we knew when we started. Let’s take a look at some finer points people might overlook when they dive into beekeeping.
So, as you can see as we have laid it out there are a lot more positives to beekeeping than there are negatives. Moreover, if you do a fair amount of research and give yourself some grace, this can become not only a therapeutic hobby, but a money-making one as well. Some people make beeswax soap, candles, lip balm, candies, caramels, bread, barbeque sauce, or simply jar it because it is so decadent and delicious! Also, if you have an adequate bee suit or choose a friendly bee variety (Italians are our recommended favorite), there is honestly a very low likelihood that you will ever be stung by a bee.
Right now, the honey flow in Minnesota for bees is nearly at its end. So, my Queen Bee (my wife) is harvesting honey, checking hives, and nurturing her battalion of ladies (that numbers in the hundreds of thousands with 4 hives) as winter approaches. After a full season of following their rhythm, needs, and watching honeybees effortlessly manage their way through a drought, it is very sweet and rewarding to receive some honey, too. As always, let us know all of your thoughts in the Comments below about beekeeping! We will look to continue this conversation in future weeks of “Home on the Range.”
