In all the excitement this week, I forgot that World Bee Day was on Tuesday, May 20th! Angel Chuck Billy absolutely loved being a beekeeper. So for this week’s Throwback Thursday, I’m going to share with you how we became beekeepers.
Introducing Chuck BEEly and Azzza (May 2016)
Asa and I are now pet owners! Dad decided that we are mature enough to have our own pets, and gave us three choices – Sea Monkeys, Ants or Bees. Knowing that pets are a big responsibility, I researched which option is the best fit for us.
At first I thought Sea Monkeys would be an awesome pet! The idea of having a tank full of scuba diving monkeys sounded like hours of enjoyment. You can’t begin to imagine my disappointment when I discovered that despite the name, they aren’t monkeys at all. Rather they are actually brine shrimp. No offense brine shrimp, you may be fun too, but I feel like I’d spend my days wishing you were monkeys instead. Besides, Asa can never pass up licking an unattended shrimp platter at parties, so I wouldn’t want to give him some weird psychological crisis differentiating between food and pets. On to the next option – Ants!
Now although I’ve seen Ants in my backyard, they’ve never seemed particularly interesting. I found out pet Ants are different than wild Ants in that the pet version live in a formicarium between two panes of plastic. Watching them crawl around in the sand may be a great educational tool, but I’d feel bad keeping them trapped in one never ending beach romp. However if I let them out to play, I run the risk of them carrying off the tasty crumbs on my kitchen floor. I really don’t want to compete with my pet for crumbs, so I decided against Ants. Last option – Bees!
By the process of elimination and careful research…ok, so it was Dad who did the research…I decided Bees are our best option! Alright, to be honest it was Dad who really wanted the Bees. He’s been learning how to take care of them for a few years, and felt now was a good time to get them. Ok I know what you’re thinking, Bees are a lot of work. But the reason I like Bees as a pet is because Dad will do all the work taking care of them, while Asa and I watch them happily buzzing about our wildflowers and fruit trees…and we will someday enjoy their delicious honey! It’s a win – win situation!
They arrived this past weekend, and are currently settling into the hives and taking care of their Queen. At first Asa and I wanted to name each Bee. But after finding out that there are thousands per hive, we decided to just name the two Queens. However at the moment Asa and I are having a bit of disagreement on that topic, so only our hives are named for now – Chuck BEEly and Azzza. We’ll keep you updated on the progress of our new pets. Oh and in case you’re wondering what Mom thinks of all this, would you believe she wanted to get us a sister instead! HA! That’s silly having a Golden Retriever as a pet!
Proudly posing with the hives we helped to build…
…BEFORE the Bees arrived. For some reason Mom and Dad said we couldn’t help our new pets move in and unpack their tiny suitcases!
2025 Update: After experiencing colony collapse a couple of years ago, we have not had honey bees in a while. We were planning to welcome new honey bees to our hive this year, but with the loss of Chuck Billy, our hearts just weren’t ready. But rest assured, we WILL be beekeepers again! And for those who are curious about what we named our two queen bees back in 2016, Chuck Billy chose “Queen Elizzzabeth,” and I named mine after the band, “Queensryche!”
