As we enter our second year, we thought it would be a good time to sit back and reflect on some of the lessons learned during our first year as “beeks”. And in no particular order, this is what surprised us the most as new beekeepers:

It might surprise you to learn that Lauchie and I didn’t start beekeeping with the intent to harvest beeswax (also known as cera alba for you science-y guys). It never even crossed our minds. Honey was the name of the game. But where there are bees, there is wax—sometimes lots of it—and eventually we had to decide what to do with it.

When we first started out, Lauchie and I were kind of obsessed with Paul Kelly. If you haven’t heard of him yet, Kelly is a researcher and apiary manager for the University of Guelph Honey Bee Research Centre and he is kind of a rock star on the UoG Honey Bee Research...