I always wanted to be a beekeeper, but knew I was allergic, so I never started. Had a few friends that did it, so I would pepper them with questions. Along the way, I found out lots of people swell up like I do when they get stung, including beekeepers. Several told me they swell the first several stings then stop swelling (I tried that one year and after about the 6th time with continued swelling, I started covering up more).

Then I started watching youtube videos. It was so fascinating. I don't know how many hours I watched, but I watched a lot of videos. I then found a local beekeeping club and started attending a few meetings. I learned about suppliers and mentors and other sources of information. Then I pulled the trigger.

I purchased my first two colonies in 2016. My wife likes the honey part. My favorite part is catching swarms.

Until this year, I had three colonies. Generally I would get honey from 2 out of the 3 due to constant problems you have with bees. The first year, you generally don't get any honey (I got 49 lbs). The next two years I got around 120 lbs primarily from two of my three colonies. This year, I only got honey from one colony, but it is probably around 90 lbs (I will know more in the next week or so when I bottle it (and then post the video)).