The Life of a Busy Bee (and Beekeeper)

I thought I'd share today a little about one of the hobbies my husband and I enjoy. We've been keeping bees for about ten years. At one point we had six hives, but had a bear attack on Spy Wednesday night and spent Holy Thursday putting up an electric fence. We knew the bears would be back that night to raid the candy shop again. 

This season we have three hives and that's enough work for two old people. It also gives us more than enough honey to use and share.

Sometimes I sing to the bees when I go out to the bee yard. Hopefully, it will sooth their savage breasts and keep them from stinging. I've never gotten through a bee season without at least a few stings and I get a pretty big reaction. Nevertheless, I continue because I love it. And when you think about it, there are few worthwhile things in life that don't involve sacrifice and suffering. The stings are just the price we pay for what we call Camp Kreitzer Gold.

Many of the saints talked about bees. St. Francis de Sales must have been a beekeeper he mentions them so much in his sermons. When her mother asked Lucia of Fatima what she would like as a gift when she made her profession, she asked for a beehive. Can you imagine what it was like riding on the train with a hive? Perhaps her mother had an entire railway carriage "alone" with 25,000 bees. 

And the monks were certainly beekeeping scientists as they used beeswax to make candles and fermented the honey for mead during their "labora" hours between the canonical times of "ora." 

There's an ancient custom of "telling the bees" about important family events, both happy and sad, but especially when the beekeeper dies. I love the idea and will make a point of talking to my bees when we are working in the apiary. 

And I always pray for the intercession of the patrons of beekeepers. There are many. My favorite is St. Gobnait (or Abigail or Deborah). You can read about others here.