The honey bees
Honey bees were our first farming enterprise. They are a fascination of mine (Heather). I was listening to "The Diane Rehm Show" sometime during 2005 and she was interviewing a woman who had written a book about her experiences as a new beekeeper. To this day, I'm not sure why but something in my head just clicked and I thought, "I can do that!" And a new beekeeper was born. As with everything on our farm, we didn't want to use medications and so started our quest to learn about natural beekeeping. Lots of reading and attending beekeeping conferences has gained us much insight but mostly I've learned by trial and error and painful mistakes.
I absolutely love beekeeping. Honey bee colonies are the most amazing organism I can think of. The complex social structure never ceases to astound me and I learn something new everytime I open a hive. Beekeeping is a great hobby as well if you have children. My girls are in to the bees and have learned so much biology while attempting to understand their bees. Beekeeping can also be quite frustrating. The learning curve is steep and entire hives can be lost if the beekeeper misses a sign that something is amiss.
My apiary is small. It never gets bigger than 10 colonies. That is the number I'm comfortable working with and maintaining. Beekeeping can be hard on the back. Those honey supers are heavy! We use only natural controls with our bees for dealing with issues. Varroa mites are the biggest pest in our area. We use screened bottom boards, natural cell size, and resistant bees to keep them under control. I take a tough love approach with my hives and won't treat with chemicals to save a hive that is going under from Varroa mites. The only way that we (all beekeepers) will ever be able to get Varroa mites under control is to only allow the resistant hives to reproduce. This can be a painful process short term but when I look out in my apiary and see colonies that have been in existance for years without a single application of anything artificial, I know it is worth it.
Ask 10 beekeepers how they do things and you'll get 10 different answers. Here are a few of my practices. They work for me. I don't ever requeen a hive. I take a pretty hands off approach. The worker bees know when they need a new queen and they are good at taking care of it. I use only medium sized supers for everything. They are easier for me to lift when full and I like that all of my equipment is interchangeable. I also use some foundationless frames working on allowing the bees to draw a natural cell sizes. It's been an interesting experiment and something I continue to play with. I make splits from my own hives to increase colonies using those hives that have proven to be strong and resistant to varroa. I don't pull honey until the fall. I would rather get less honey myself and leave the bees enough than have to feed sugar syrup because I pulled in the spring and the weather doesn't cooperate with a good fall nectar flow.
Beekeeping will also make you much more in tune with the microclimate of your farm or neighborhood. I am very aware now of weather patterns and when each nectar or pollen producing plant comes into bloom. Beekeeping leads to a strong connection to your "place" in this world. To me that is as valuable as the honey that comes from the hives.