Honeybee Hangout

“Honeybee Hangout” is a family bee operation in Southwest Washington with hives scattered all over Cowlitz County. Over the years, tending to the honeybees has become one of our family’s favorite hobbies. With the addition of each hive, we found that our family began to “hangout” together more and more around those amazing bees.

Everyone in the family has their favorite bee season. Some in the family love the spontaneity of dropping everything and chasing a spring swarm. We all enjoy packing a sack lunch and making our fifty mile summer run through the county to visit each apiary. It would be nearly impossible not to love our annual fall harvest party. Around our place, it rivals Christmas as a favorite holiday. Winter is filled with making candles, lip balm, and lotions. It is also the time for building new hives in preparation for spring.

There are, of course, those winter runs where we brush away the snow from the doors of the hives and plaster an ear against the side of every hive just to hear that buzz that lets us know all is well. All of that takes time, and it is time well spent together with fond memories and lots of smiles and laughter. I would recommend this hobby to anyone who can stand the pain of an occasional bee sting. Our family has come to appreciate the value of every “honeybee hangout” moment spent with each other and with God’s amazing Honeybee!