I saw my nephews this past week. Always a pleasure! They are eight, six, three and three weeks and I'm excited to share my enthusiasm for bees with them. As I was showing one of them pictures of the hives, our garden, and the bees coming and going he asked, "Uncle Chris....WHY do you keep bees?" 

Everyone else in the room rolled their eyes and said sarcastically "That's a good question, isn't it?" Then, this past week we got a question from a dear friend on the website about how I came to decide to start keeping bees.  Was it a longstanding desire to keep bees? Was there an 'Aha!' moment? I get people's reservations. I have probably 30,000 stinging insects in two boxes in my backyard. Why would anyone do that? Well, let me try to explain.

I've always had a concern for the environment. Somewhere along the line someone must have impressed on me that our planet's time is finite.  There just isn't enough to go on forever, and continuing to live on this planet the way we do is going to require some work and change. When I was eight, I wrote an unprompted letter to then president George W. Bush describing my concerns about the environment and asking that we work hard to preserve it in any way we can. I felt good about that. In my eight year old mind, I had done everything in my power. I had gone to the top to get my concerns heard. I even got a letter back assuring the president shared my concerns.

There was a change that happened somewhere in my life where I transitioned from the dreamy idealism of childhood on to the next phase. My world became very small and was need driven: graduate high school, find a job, pay rent, keep food in the fridge. I imagine most people go through this. But in this phase the great big world wasn't really on my radar. I would hear about mass bee deaths and the effect this could have on our planet, and though I continued to feel concern I just didn't think there was anything I could do. I mean, I rented a studio in Boston with no yard.  I bought natural products when they were available and affordable, and that was generally what I thought I had the energy and means to do.

Somewhere in my early 30's things changed again. I was able to travel a bit, I started to care a little more about my health, and this is where my concern for bees began to take a more personal feeling. During this time I started toying with substituting coffee for tea and sugar for honey. During a trip to Savannah, GA I stopped in at The Savannah Bee Co and was invited to sample their line of honeys. I was fascinated! Why did wildflower honey taste different than lavender? Why was tupelo honey sweeter than the rest? I began to research in my spare time.

So this is where we come to it. Years after my experience in Savannah, decades after my initial interest in the environment, my wife and I bought a house with a sizeable backyard. Still, beekeeping was not in my radar. At some point we started talking about what we would do with the space. A garden of course! And what would help a garden? I don't know..."bees!" I yelled out in the impulsive way people have become accustomed to me doing.

I think at that point I laughed it off. As it turned out The Honey Exchange here in Portland is walking distance from our new house and offers classes for new urban Beekeepers. The magnets in my mind started to connect. This was truly a possibility and, as it turns out, this is one contribution I could make to helping our environment.

As I finish this post up, I'm sitting in our backyard looking over the garden and watching the bees come and go busily. I'm watching honey bees, bumble bees, butterflies, and hover flies move from the potted limed cockscomb on the to the flowering basil and over to the polygala along the fence (all of which I would have never been able to identify before having bees). Three months in I have no regrets about the decision to become a beekeeper. In fact, they have added a great deal of value and satisfaction to our space. I only hope that in the future I can provide education to people, and continue to foster an interest in my young nephews.

~Chris, The Boxing Beekeeper