I saw a television programme about bees when I was about 13 years old. I’m now 62. I thought, boy, that’s great so I got some books from the library. My dad knew a beekeeper that used to work at the plant where he was an electrician. This was in Hamilton down the lake from here. So I got one hive of bees and that was the beginning of it. When I got out of high school I read more about it and I thought it would be a really great way to make a living. I thought if I could just do that I’d have it all, so that’s what I shot for. I was fortunate enough to be able to realize that. By the time I was 20 years old I had 100 hives at different farms around the area. I used to get paid something like $15 a hive back then for pollination services in the orchards. In 1970 we moved out here because I got a job teaching school in Beamsville just down the road. I left that after a few years when the honey business started going well.
Now I’ve got 6,500 hives so there’s a lot more work. It’s seasonal of course but there’s still a lot of building and maintenance during the winter. When I was young there was just myself. It’s just like a disease, beekeeping; once you’re stung it injects something into you and you’ve got the bug. My mother says it’s her fault, she says when I was a kid she gave me and my brother jars and we’d got catch bees in backyard and then watch them. They’re amazing creatures. Nobody’s in charge but everyone works together; it’s pretty extraordinary. And they’re not doing it for you, they’re just trying to produce enough food to get them through the winter, just like a bear fattening up for hibernation.
