The Hobbyist Beekeeper

We humans love labels. We like neat little categories and stacks. One of the definitions beekeepers like to make is between professional beekeepers and hobbyist or backyard beekeepers. This is often used in ways to dismiss backyard beekeepers as uneducated, annoying, or quite possible the problem (re: why bees are dying). The thing is, people have been living with bees for far longer than commercial operations have been keeping bees. It’s not a hobby. There were ancient laws in Ireland established just for beekeeping.

Living with bees is a way of life. We need people in cities and countryside to find ways back to living with the natural world. Community gardens. Rooftop apiaries. Urban farms. Neighbourhood chicken coops. Calling beekeeping a hobby relegates it to something cute, but inconsequential. Ask any beekeeper if their relationship to their hive feels inconsequential. We are in need of more relationship with the non-human world, not less. The non-human world, I dare say, is also interested in relationship with us. Even if that relationship is simply saying hi to the songbirds in the morning. There is an exchange. It is felt. Only our modern, proof-driven minds question this. All indigenous cultures know the Earth and her creatures hear you. Your ancestors knew it. You know it too. It is the way of things.

Photo by @simon_weller