Keeping bees is a fascinating and rewarding hobby. For many people, once they get started they are quickly infected with what is known as “Bee-fever” and there is no turning back. Some beekeepers are content with a single or a pair of hives in the backyard, others can’t help but grow their little apiary year…
Category: Beekeeping
Monsanto claims commitment to the honeybee industry
The last speaker of the day at MSBA’s annual conference was Jerry Hayes–the beekeeper who is now working for Monsanto. I couldn’t help but notice that a number of people left before Hayes got up to speak, and I happened to overhear one pair of gentlemen heatedly discussing Monsanto as they walked past me, so…
Michael Bush at MSBA
Check out Michael’s website The Practical Beekeeper–he offers lots of information there, and everything that you would find in his book is available right there.
Maine beekeepers converge on Portland
I was downright giddy as I left the house just as the sun was coming up Saturday morning. The only vehicles on the road seemed to belong to men dressed in hunter orange, and I imagine that my excitement at going to my first-ever beekeeper’s conference surpassed their’s at a prospective day of hunting. It…
Making the connection: Honeybees and you
Today I’m off to Reddington Memorial Home in Skowhegan to talk to the elderly folks there about bees and beekeeping. It’s safe to say that this is one of my favorite aspects of being president of the Somerset Beekeepers. People are naturally curious about beekeeping, it seems to hold some mystique and allure. Perhaps it’s…
The meeting of the beekeepers
Tuesday night’s meeting of the Somerset Beekeepers was a good one. We probably have somewhere around 35 or so members now, and a core group of about 12-15 who typically show up for meetings, which our speakers tend to appreciate since a small group is easier to manage than a group of say–100.
Bees have been good to me
So what if I’m quickly becoming known as the local “Bee-lady”–that’s not so bad (better than being the crazy cat-lady, if you ask me). Bees have been very good to me. In the three years since I brought home my first colony, my life has changed dramatically–in a very positive way. I did not expect…
Certified pollinator friendly!
Runamuk Acres is now officially certified as pollinator friendly! A passion for bugs I couldn’t say why exactly I became so passionate about bees and pollinators–when I was younger I was like many other folks with an aversion to bugs-but I married an insect-lover who made me see that insects are beautiful in their own…
From bug-hater to beekeeper
I’m selling honey for the first time this year. I am so proud of myself! Ten years ago I would never have imagined I’d end up a beekeeper. I was never a bug person when I was growing up. In fact I was like most folks–thinking that bugs are icky, and wishing they could all…
Successful first-ever meeting of Somerset beekeepers
It was originally scheduled to meet last Wednesday night, the 12th of January, but because of a messy Nor’easter last week I had to postpone the first meeting of Somerset Beekeepers to Monday, the 17th. So Monday night we all gathered at the Somerset County University of Maine Cooperative Extension in Skowhegan to establish…



