Bee-vangelism or spreading the word and enlisting converts

One of the dictionary definitions of "evangelism" is "a militant or crusading zeal". While I have always been a proponent of bees and beekeeping, I guess now I have become an evangelist or a Bee-vangelist! (I can hear the groans from my pun loving friends John and Roger)  My husband has also become a bee-vangelist telling everyone he knows that his wife is a beekeeper and he is right there with me, in the hive, visiting the bee supply stores and browsing the catalogs. He joined in the extracting fun at my workplace and he even thinks he can find a place for a hive or two at some of his work sites.

Our crusade worked on a colleague at my workplace as well. A professor with a strong interest in the environment and sustainability came by to learn about the extracting process. He was so excited about it, he called his wife and asked her to come by, with their teenager daughters. After some teenage reluctance, all three arrived and within a few minutes, they were all working. They uncapped frames, cranked the extractor, and stuck labels on jars. At one point, one of the girls had a drone bee walking around on her hand. Before the afternoon was over, the professor was hooked and talking about getting his own bee hive and his daughter was thinking of designs for the jar label.

My nephew in Vermont has been converted as well. His conversion came from my dad, his grandfather. My nephew and his wife are caring for their first hive this summer and we share updates. Their enthusiasm is not dampened by the shorter summer in northern Vermont or the shorter growing season. In this picture, Steve is adding a honey super and is well protected.

photo courtesy of Brianne Ragno
 

Oh, and my son-in-law is a convert too! He says he's willing to put a hive in his backyard (although he might just be trying to stay on my good side!) but his wife, my daughter, is not yet ready for that. Dogs and babies come first. 

Yup, and 2 of my high school classmates, who are also Facebook friends, have contacted me about bees and beekeeping. One of them lives in Hawaii so I'm volunteering to go visit and help Michael with his hives! I had honey from a lavender farm in Hawaii and it was exquisite!

http://www.aliikulalavender.com/p-21-lavender-honey.aspx

One more...a neighbor with a young son who has a tortoise, a lizard, a dog and is in to all sorts of outdoor sports came over recently and got very excited about the bees. Now he's borrowed my books, wants to come watch when we go into the hive again and getting educated so he can have a hive next spring.

With all the news about the importance of honeybees for our food and the collapse of bee hive colonies all over the world, I can only hope that more people catch bee-vangelism fever and become crusaders.



"Evangelism." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 18 July 2014. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/evangelism>.