The first pleasure of my mornings starts with drooling a spoonful of golden honey into that first cup of coffee. Only then do the lists and chores of the day follow the sweet sipping from a sturdy wide-bottomed mug.

Beekeeping naturally precedes the collection of honey, and beekeeping has often been out of favour in urban areas. But with the growing interest in and appreciation of homegrown food, the option of keeping a hive or two of bees in one’s own backyard is again becoming part of a homeowner’s possibilities for providing her own food. Just this spring, Qualicum Beach adopted a bylaw making it legal to keep bees out there beside the flower bed.

Between loss of foraging habitat and increasing attacks by varroa mites, bees are not having an easy time of it in today’s world. When we consider the bees’ important, even critical place in the ecosystem where we depend on them to pollinate most of the world’s food, adding to bees’ numbers is a positive step. Bee by bee these insects are the true gardeners of the world.

Today we can easily recognize the square, box-like homes or hives of bees in fields or yards. Before the days of the apiarist or beekeeper, people sought out and harvested honey from wild bees. Thousands of years ago, bees were being domesticated in Egypt and the first human-made hives started to appear. Sometimes these were but a hollow log or a clay pot. The traditional beehive-shaped-hives were called skeps. Skeps were made from straw, willow or sticks, and some were even coated with a mixture of sand and cow dung; this “clooming” as it was called giving the hives some protection from the elements, though it would not appeal, I’m sure, to modern apiarists.

The modern, box-shaped hive favoured by beekeepers was first designed and patented by Lorenzo Langstroth in the 19th century. These hives have the advantage of allowing the combs of honey in the “supers” or upper storeys, to be removed without disturbing the bees’ brood chamber.

We may think of honey and sugar as pretty synonymous, but honey has its advantages. Made up of two simple sugars, laevulose (fructose) and dextrose, it is quickly absorbed by the body and is an almost instant source of energy … a natural, unrefined sweet fluid from the nectar of flowers. Honey also contains potassium and trace amounts of the vitamins C, and B plus A, and K. It has recently been found to have a significant antioxidant content, with the darker coloured honeys being superior in this respect. Honey contains no fat, aids digestion, and boosts the immune system.

Honey as an antiseptic? Yes – a natural one that absorbs moisture around minor wounds and scrapes and keeps them free from infection.

Recipes using honey in baking are easily found and full of information on the storing of honey, its sugar equivalents, and tricks for making its admittedly sticky use easier.

On a recent trip to Ontario, I visited a honey farm and was amazed and intrigued by the ingenuity of its apiarists. Yes, they sold honey in many forms and flavours, but the buzz didn’t stop there. Honeycombs provided the wax for candles of many descriptions, and a subtle smelling insect repellent was among the offshoots of their honey and bee wares, along with recipe books, bee and honey related cards, and no end of bee and honey lore.

Outdoors, the honey farm featured trails through their woods, bordered by metal railings with bee design cutouts. What truly took my fancy, though, was the yellow school bus, long retired from its original occupation, but still in the education business. Inside, the front half of the bus had its seats removed and featured a teaching area with bee and honey charts and even a model of an old skep. The other half of the bus still had its seats where the beekeeper’s students or audience could learn something of this fascinating business. The farm also offered tours around their farm to let people learn just where honey came from.

Beekeeping will not be for everyone, but almost anyone with a garden can add to its success and keep the bees buzzing. Planting a bee-friendly garden, including flowers, trees, shrubs, and groundcovers that will attract and provide bees with the honey and pollen they require is a bee-friendly step in helping the bees’ survival. A handy folder with lists of bee-attracting plants and their care is available from the Honey Bee Research Centre at the University of Guelph, 308 Stone Road E., Guelph, Ontario.

There is more sweet honey lore than this article can accommodate, but when you consider that beekeeping leaves little if any trace on our ecosystem … other than bountiful harvests … and also consider that honey travels a relatively short distance to connect with Canadian consumers as opposed to the incredible journey of sugar, beekeeping is a good deal all around.

Honey brings us the culmination of everything the earth is made of … rock, soil, plant and animal … and proves again the connectedness of life when everything works together.

Nancy Whelan
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