I helped our Bee Keeper maintain three hives when I was younger, but then we moved and had a desire but no time to keep bees. Well all that has changed so I started up last year... what a rocky start... bees came late.... three weeks...... Then after about a month to 5 weeks in the queen decided to swarm, Mid July. In Maine that is not a good time, so I started to be bee maid to my girls, watched them create new queen, prayed she would stay, and she did.... but they did not have a lot of time to create comb, honey and gather pollen. This proved to be a stressful time for them and me, my mentor said he would have given up on them and see what happened, but ultimately they would die off. I stuck it out and now they are thriving. During this entire time I have three Boy Scouts, I am the leader, ask to visit the hive with myself and their dad.... They did and were amazed.
So to the post I will be a Bee Keeping MBC, two hobbies I enjoy, Scouts and Bee Keeping... why not place them together to learn something. Insect study is the current Badge that has a section on Bee's but it does no justice to it at all, what othr insect does so much for the environment, flowers, or medical remedies?
Randy