Top 10 Reasons to Become a Beekeeper

Beekeeping is truly a one-of-a-kind hobby! Here are 10 of the perks you’ll get with bees you won’t find with traditional livestock and poultry.

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Minimal Winter Work
If the beekeeper has helped the colony store plenty of food and has addressed pest, predator and disease issues, there is little to do in winter.

Bees Make Honey and More
Bees make more honey than they need to survive a winter on their own. They share the surplus with the beekeeper. You can also use byproducts like beeswax, propolis, and royal jelly for candles, soaps, and more. You don’t need to harm your bees to harvest these products.

Honeybees Pollinate
Honeybees’ main foods are nectar and pollen collected as they fly from flower to flower. Their hairy little bodies pick up the sticky pollen from flowers. This is the pollen that then transfers to the sticky stigma on another flower and pollination occurs.

Relatively Cost-Effective Equipment  
While your initial setup takes a few bucks, beekeeping equipment is far less expensive than other farm or agricultural equipment. A hive of honeybees doesn’t require oil, gasoline, diesel or anything else to run.

Room to Grow
If you produce too many colonies for your backyard, then unlike cows or something else big, you can simply ask a neighbor or friend if you can put some of your valuable honeybees on his property. No land to buy or rent.

No Fencing Calamities
Unlike cows, goats, sheep, pigs, and other farm inhabitants, bees don’t require fencing nor will they knock down or otherwise destroy your fencing.

Bees Work for Next to Nothing
Honeybees feed themselves — a honeybee can forage for nectar and pollen efficiently in a 2- to 2-1/2-mile radius of their colony — and clean up after themselves as well.

Sleep In and Go on Vacation
You don’t have to get up at 2:00 in the morning to check if they are hatching or calving. You can also go on a reasonable vacation without commissioning a bee sitter.

Fun for City Dwellers, Too
You don’t have to own large tracts of your own land or barns. You can live on a small plot right in the city and keep your own bees, pending you follow all local regulations and your setup is respectful of neighbors.

Honeybees are the Keystone Fundamental Pollinator Species
Honey bees produce an almost perfect energy food — honey. You don’t have to be perfect to be a perfect beekeeper. Honeybees do not necessarily require the management skills of a learned beekeeper for optimum results.