74 / Buzz-thrill

FFS!

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Ever since I started a beekeeping course over ten weeks ago, each class has been hosted by a different lecturer with specialist knowledge. I've received an education in the way of bees from experts in swarming, harvesting, disease prevention, equipment and more. It’s riveting stuff.

However, as you might already know, my beekeeping bubble was burst early on. In week one — the class on hive types — I posed the question upon which all of my apiary aspirations rested: 

Is it safe to keep a beehive in a city garden with kids?

“No,” came the shock reply.

But I knew better than to trust a person who hardly blinks, and so I used the powers of arithmetic to convince myself otherwise:

60,000 bees + 2 children in a confined space = what could possibly go wrong?

I was sure it was possible. I knew I couldn’t let one beekeeper’s opinion stymy my long-standing ambition to own a hive.

So, every week since the course began, and in a desperate attempt to hear a different lecturer draw a different conclusion, I’ve persisted in asking the same question:

Is it safe to keep a beehive in a city garden with kids?

No doubt, I’ve driven my classmates crazy. No doubt, they’ve groaned at the sound of my repetitive voice. But I haven’t relented.

And yet, every lecturer has delivered the same painful reply, to the same hopeful question: Is it safe to keep a beehive in a city garden with kids?

“No, it’s not safe,” they’ve each answered coldly.

Until yesterday that is.

Yes, last night, I had a breakthrough. Ten weeks since first posing the question: Is it safe to keep a beehive in a city garden with kids? — my persistence paid off.

A two-hour class on colony inspection with master apiarist Graham Hall, ended on a hopeful note.

He said, “maybe.”