Beekeeping and Honey

The Plan In December of 2019, I ordered five packages of bees from an apiary in Tennessee. The plan was simple. My grandfather — a beekeeper his entire life, the man who carried this tradition from Moldova across generations — was going to fly over and be with me when they arrived. He was going to show me how to install them into the hives. How to read the frames. How to find a queen. How to do everything I’d only read about in books and watched on YouTube videos at midnight.

Walk down the honey aisle at any grocery store and you’ll find shelf after shelf of golden jars — some labeled “natural,” some “pure,” some “organic.” And then, tucked somewhere nearby, you’ll find one labeled “raw.” What does raw actually mean? And is it worth paying more for? As a beekeeper whose family has kept hives across four generations — from Moldova and Ukraine to our 33-acre farm here in Franklin, NY — I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this question. The short

I’ve been around bees my whole life — my family has kept hives for four generations, from Moldova and Ukraine to our 33-acre farm here in the Catskills. And I still learn things about bees that genuinely stop me in my tracks. So if you think bees are just the things you swat away at a picnic, buckle up. These little creatures are some of the most fascinating, dramatic, and frankly unhinged members of the animal kingdom. Here are 13 facts about honeybees and honey that I genui