My husband and I live on a 12 acres nature preserve in the western North Carolina foothills called TwoTrees. Having grown up on a large state park (my dad was the head ranger), I am fascinated by all aspects of nature. For a number of years, I've had a special interest in honeybees. Here in the US, honeybees are increasingly rare, dure to a variety of diseases and something called 'colony collapse'. Since bees are incredibly important in food crop production because of their work as pollinators, this has significant implications.

I mentioned to a friend of mine who is a beekeeper that I was interested in learning apiculture from her. Nothing much came of that until she and her husband sold their rural home and moved to town to be closer to their daughter's school. She called early this week to see whether we were still interested in having a beehive here and learning about their care. I was thrilled! And so we now have our first nucleus (starter) hive and I have become an apprentice beekeeper.

It's been cool and overcast and the Little Sisters are still out of sorts from being moved. When I went down to get the mail on Thursday (the hive is about 50 yards from the mailboxes), they chased me back up the hill. No stings yet! Colony activity looks normal and they are beginning to locate local nectar sources, especially all the tulip poplar trees in bloom. We probably won't get honey the first year, while the colony is building strength.

I'm glad to have a chance to learn beekeeping from another woman (most beekeepers are men!) and am grateful to the bees for the work they will do in helping to pollinate our garden.