My mom has bees!

Well, my dad has them, too but the title of this post goes nicely to a tune in my head that I can't place...  I guess the effect is lost on everyone but me.  Plus, Mother's Day.  And what do you get a woman who has bees?  A post about her and her new hobby!

Some people get old as they accumulate years.  My parents, not so much.  This year they embarked on a new hobby - beekeeping.  My Mom has talked about it for years but The Husband is allergic (and My Mom is very good about The Husband, she either really likes him or really fakes it well, either way she's doing a bang up job as Mother-In-Law).  Last year we moved away from being within a short drive to being within a short plane flight and My Mom started taking beekeeping classes.  Turns out that the state of North Carolina is supportive of the home beekeepers.  They have classes, Master Beekeepers, field trips to experienced beekeepers.  Wow.

Not only did My Mom start a new hobby but she's also keeping up with technology.  No fear of computers for her (and no fear of bees, obviously)!  She is posting about her bees (check her blog out HERE). I was going to post about her experience but her blog says it all (or at least everything I know about bee keeping).

I did ask her why beekeeping and she had quite the list of reasons.  One of which is the decline in native pollinators and one is the decline in the bee population.  The more people who have bees the more bees there are and her bees are going to be moderately isolated from other beekeepers (except the guy down the road) so there's less of a chance of disease transmission.  The small time beekeeper may hold the reserve population in case the "working bees" that pollinate our food crops suffer another population crash. 

So here's to My Mom on Mother's Day, an inspiration to everyone who accumulates years but doesn't want to age gracefully.  You go Mom!