 |
| Photo by Linda Rathburn--thanks, Linda! |
We have been keeping bees since 2004, when we took a beginner beekeeping class from the Beaver Valley Area Beekeepers' Association and we haven't looked back!
In May that year, we bought two hives from a long-time beekeeper in Portersville. That June, one of the colonies swarmed and our little apiary grew from two colonies to three. Though we have had as many as 30 colonies, we prefer to keep no more than 10 so that beekeeping remains a joy for us. For that reason, we generally have only small quantities of honey available.
In 2009, with Meredith and Alex Grelli and Christina Joy Neumann, we helped to co-found Burgh Bees, a wonderful organization that promotes urban beekeeping & trains new beekeepers. Click on the link to learn more! From 2009 to 2011, Robert was the President of the Beaver Valley Area Beekeepers' Association (click on link above for more information).Beekeeping is a sideline occupation for us--or what might be called a hobby on steroids. In our "real" lives, Robert is a corporate pilot and Jennie is a professor of communication.