Because you can't keep dragons in the garden.

I have a litany of reasons for beginning to keep bees on a small scale several years ago. There are practical reasons and idealistic ones and funny ones. Even character-building reasons, because I've attained a whole new level of courage in the face of bugs. And I'm not the Mother of Dragons or the Mother of Bees, but my queen bees are. Each one is the mother of an entire honeybee civilization, of all the bees in her hive. And I can't think of a better representative of Mother Nature. I've become quite devoted to keeping those queens alive and doing their thing, and keeping their hard-working civilizations strong. Through pollination and honey production, they do so much for us.

Here's a photo I took of some of my foragers bringing home yellow pollen.

I'll be gathering up some of my stories about backyard beekeeping and see if I can get a blog going here.

If you're in the Kansas City metro area and interested in buying some honey or lip balm, click to shop.

— Mary de Zutter Barron, Kansas City, Missouri, December 17, 2018