People have been keeping bees for a very long time.
It is a popular and growing practice. Just in the United States, more than 200,000 people keep honeybee hives. Around 90 percent of them do it for a hobby. The rest do it as a business.
Whether it’s a hobby or a job, beekeeping means you work all year round. You have to order bees, tend hives, and remove honey. You have to protect bees from disease. You have to make sure there’s food near the hive and also stored for when the flower-growing season is over. Those are just some of the tasks beekeepers do. In winter, cold-climate hives need to be wrapped in paper to keep them warm. New equipment needs to be ordered and put together. Plans for the coming year must be made. Busy as a bee? It’s probably just as true to say, “Busy as a beekeeper.”
