Focusing on the sweet stuff.

This Spring and Summer I've started a new hobby: beekeeping. Over the Winter, I enrolled in a very comprehensive class run through the Norfolk County Beekeepers Association that taught me all I need to know to get my journey started with actual real live honey bees! The girls moved in at the end of April and I have been observing, inspecting, managing, and learning since then.

While I am an extreme novice, and will easily spend decades learning more about these fascinating creatures and their habits, here are a few fun facts I have picked up so far.

Honey Bee colonies are almost entirely female.

Out of tens of thousands of honey bees in a single hive, only a handful are the male drones. The rest of the hive from the foragers, to the architects, to the guards are all female. These male drones play a role in fertilizing Queens from other nearby hives, but other than that they are basically useless sperm sacks in terms of the role they play in the hive. Come Fall the ladies kick out all the drones to die in the cold as they use up too much resources without contributing to the hive.

Honey Bees move through different roles throughout their life as they age.

As I alluded to above, there are many different roles that a bee plays in the hive throughout her short life. The youngest bees act as nurses to the growing eggs and larva. The oldest bees are those who take on the dangerous task of foraging in the wild open world for pollen. Some never make it back to their hive on their final flight. If you see a honey bee buzzing on a flower, she is an elder of the hive.

It's all about the collective survival of the hive.

As a first year beekeeper my primary goal is to help my bees survive the harsh New England winter. These preparations that ensure the hive is healthy and robust start in early Spring. Life in the hive is not about the individual, it is about playing your part in concert with your community to ensure collective survival.

So many lessons to be drawn from the humble honey bee!I'm excited to learn more on my beekeeping journey and look forward to sharing more in the months to come.