A Book Of Bees Quotes

“I like pulling on a baggy bee suit, forgetting myself and getting as close to the bees' lives as they will let me, remembering in the process that there is more to life than the merely human.”
― Sue Hubbell, A Book Of Bees: And How to Keep Them – A Melodious Beekeeping Memoir and Nature Journal from the Missouri Ozarks

“The only time I ever believed that I knew all there was to know about beekeeping was the first year I was keeping them. Every year since I’ve known less and less and have accepted the humbling truth that bees know more about making honey than I do.”
― Sue Hubbell, A Book Of Bees: And How to Keep Them – A Melodious Beekeeping Memoir and Nature Journal from the Missouri Ozarks

“After we had loaded the last one, I backed the pickup around and drove down the twisting road to the big truck. As we rounded the final curve, we noticed there was a strange pickup parked near the U-Haul. Two men got out of it and looked around furtively, but did not see us. They tiptoed over to the truck, their curiosity piqued by an apparently abandoned U-Haul. They tried the sliding back door gingerly, and found it would open. They gave it a push. The loose bees inside rushed out toward the light and enveloped the two men in a furious buzzing cloud. The men were both heavy, with ample beer bellies, but they ran like jackrabbits to their pickup and drove off at top speed, careening from one side of the road to the other as they tried to brush bees from their heads. I’ll wager that is the last time either of them meddled with an abandoned truck.”
― Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees

“Pastry for double-crust, 9-inch pie ¾ cup sugar 1 teaspoon nutmeg Enough pared and sliced apples to fill a 9-inch pie generously 1 ½ tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces ½ cup liquid honey 1 tablespoon grated orange rind Confectioners’ sugar Preheat oven to 425° F. Prepare pastry sufficient for a double-crust, 9-inch pie. Roll out half the dough and line the pie plate. Combine sugar and nutmeg; pour over apples, lifting and tossing with two forks until well combined. Pile fruit into pie pan, heaping to make a nice fat pie, and dot with butter. Roll out remaining pastry and cut into ½-inch strips. Arrange strips lattice fashion over apples, pressing edges down firmly. Bake 10 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 350°F. Bake 30–40 minutes more, or until apples are tender and crust is brown. Remove from oven. Combine honey and orange rind, and pour mixture through openings in lattice; return pie to oven and bake another 5 minutes. Cool to lukewarm and dredge with confectioners’ sugar. Serve warm or cold.”
― Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees

“Sparkling fair weather like that makes me think up outside work to do—work that didn’t seem strictly necessary the day before, during a snowstorm. On those days, I’ll sometimes pack up a lunch, fix a thermos of coffee and drive around to my beeyards to see how the bees are wintering. It is good to assure myself that all the telescoping covers are tightly in place, and to check whether cows have knocked over any hives. But the truth is I just miss the bees, and I want to see them. The snow has drifted up against the hives, and I stoop to brush it away from the entrances. In one yard, a tree limb has fallen across a hive, knocking the cover askew. I haul off the limb, adjust the cover.”
― Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees

“Like many beekeepers, I have discovered a dose of bee venom from a sting alleviates the symptoms of arthritis,”
― Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees

“long ago gave up a number of beekeeping practices conceived with the notion of making bees do certain things that seemed good from a human standpoint but which usually involved radically disrupting the hive. Instead, I watch the bees more, try to understand what they are doing and then see if I can work in a way that will be in keeping with their biology and behavior. I try to create conditions that will make them happy, and then leave them alone as much as possible.”
― Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees

“Bees have a keen and precise sense of place. When they fly out of their hives, they commit to their memories an exact picture of all the significant landmarks near it. It is such a careful picture that if their hive is moved even ten feet away, their home is as good as lost to the returning foragers. And because their map of a foraging area—perhaps five square miles—is so accurate, a beekeeper who wants to relocate a given beeyard in the same general area must first move the bees at least ten or fifteen miles away and leave them for a week or so until they forget the map of the original location by learning a new one. After that, he can move them back to a spot he prefers near the old location.”
― Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees

“I’ve come to the belief that we manufacture whatever immortal souls we have out of the bits of difference we make by living in this world.”
― Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees

“Karl von Frisch, Nobelist, zoologist and student of bee behavior, discovered that it helped bees to find their own hives if those placed in a row were painted different colors; in addition, he found that they rather fancied blue. When I was traveling in Mexico I was delighted to see beehives painted in deep vibrant colors—red, green, blue and black.”
― Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees

“Accidents can happen to queen bees, and in a single hive the bees will die out if they lose their queen unless they can raise a new one quickly or have their beekeeper give them one. Ordering queens by mail may take several days, and by the time she has arrived the bees in the queenless hive are often so demoralized they will refuse to accept her. But if a “queenright” hive, one with a healthy, fully fertile laying queen in it, is sitting next door to the queenless one, the beekeeper can take a frame of eggs and young bees from it, give it to the queenless hive and, in most cases, the bees will raise a new queen for themselves.”
― Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees

“Buying a hive of bees is, in some ways, like buying an Irish Setter puppy: it changes one’s life. But having two, or even three, hives of bees is not like having two or three Irish Setter puppies. The first hive is a Big Deal. The additional ones are not.”
― Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees

“Bees are forgiving animals, and will tolerate a good deal of rearrangement in their lives for whatever new fad sweeps the beekeeping industry—plastic foundation and frames, double queen management, tar-paper wraps for winter—but the best beekeepers I know are those who let the bees themselves, not equipment manufacturers, be their teachers.”
― Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees

“solid because the bees inside”
― Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees