A handful of years ago, my brother-in-law, Tommy Walker, said “We should keep bees again”.  This was probably said around Mr. Walker’s kitchen table, which is where all of the world’s problems are solved most Saturday mornings…just in case you were wondering.  Although said in passing, the remark had legs and wings…and soon it took flight!

I should probably paint the landscape a little more than that.  At the time we were trying to figure out what was happening to all of the bees in the world.  We were really going down a rabbit-hole envisioning a post-apocalyptic world without bees.  In parallel, we were were also trying to figure out how to instill a strong work ethic in our four kids while also fostering an entrepreneurial esprit de corps (every now and then I will throw in a fancy word to help out with SAT prep).  One thing you need to know is that the Walker family is very enterprising.  Mr. and Mrs. Walker were always up to something beyond their day jobs and raising 10 children…yep 10!  Colette has four sisters and five brothers.  They had a dry cleaning operation at one time, Mr. Walker ran cattle, they managed some rent houses, and the list goes on.  The gene was generously passed to their children.  Of their 10 children, eight have business of their own.

The sweetener for me was that Colette, Tommy, and Mr. Walker had all been involved with beekeeping before and were willing to don “the suit”.  I support the effort with marketing and sales talents.  God bless the special people who like to gear up and wade into a swarm of thousands of bees.

Anyway, it wasn’t long until we had three to four hives in Mr. Walker’s backyard.  Then there were another four to seven spread across our backyard and Tommy’s backyard.  Then we put some out at The Property (our country getaway that we cannot seem to find a proper name for…except “The Property”).  Then our nephew, Billy Wimberly, got in on the action.  So now we are over 10 hives strong with another 20 on the way!

It is a real family operation and we love it…no matter what any of us might say when you catch us one-on-one…especially me!  Seriously, it is great.  Our kids help with filtering, packaging, marketing, and selling.  The adults and elders perform the work where safety is critical and provide guidance to the other parts of the operation.  But for the most part, we simply helped the kids find their legs and wings and then they took flight!

Your Brother in Beekeeping (YBIB),

John the Elder