Over twenty-years ago, my father-in-law, Lynn Cheatum, was helping a neighbor cut down a dead tree. In this dead tree was a colony of bees and a lot of honey. " I was fascinated by it, " Lynn said recalling the incident. He then began telling me how his curiosity of bees had always been there but he had never acted upon it. Lynn was still unable to act on this curiosity because one of his neighbors was violently allergic to bees. This neighbor had to get a shot once a month, just in case a bee stung him, so he wouldn't die.

A few years later, in 1977, Lynn moved and was able to start his apiary, a place where you keep bees and their hives. He mail ordered his bees from Sears and Roebuck. Lynn remembers the bees came in a cage with a screen, similar to a window screen, on one side. The bees also had a supp

Worker bees are the female bees in the hive that collect the pollen and do the work to keep up the hive. The worker bees also protect the hive. After they sting an intruder, the bee dies. Drones are the male bees that do nothing but eat the honey and fly around trying to mate with the queen. Drones consist of about 1% of the bee population. After the drones mate with the queen they die. The Queen bee's one job is to reproduce.

Lynn then proceeded to take the top of one the boxes off. This I admit was a little bit scary; I was fearful we might anger the bees and suffer the consequences of not being in the proper cloths. After taking off the lid, I observed about five rows of honeycomb. I was allowed to taste the honey right off the honeycomb; it had a much richer taste than store bought honey.

When asked what the best part of beekeeping was, he anxiously began to tell me that working with the bees was very exciting. To my wonderment he compared his interaction with the bees to petting a dog. This I was unable to understand. My experiences with bees were they were a nuisance always interrupting a picnic or a get together on the porch.

After my observation of the bees and my interview with Lynn, I realized the bees also fascinated me. They are very interesting insects. I would definitely have to agree with Lynn when he said, "Too many people when they think about bee-keeping think about getting stung instead of how good honey tastes."

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Approximate Word count = 1296
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)