Update (2023) - after six years of beekeeping our roles have equalized a bit. Caring for nearly 70 hives requires at least two people. And I'm proud to now have hives that I care for on my own - I'm the mentor for the Bowie High School bee club and even have a few clients!
From 2021 - I (Nona) believe it's important to give credit where credit is due. That's why our little enterprise started as Spillers Honey BEES - not just Spillers Honey. The bees do 95% of the work! (We switched to Texas Sassy Bees in 2023 when we started selling in retail. It's a brand that says a little more about how we're different.)
That said, John Spillers used to do 99% of the 5% we as humans do. In fact, I gave myself the name "Fetch". It's something I'm good at! Go get me a honey super. Where's my hive tool? Where is the smoker. I can solve those things every time! I am good at hard work. I'm not afraid to get dirty or sweat - beekeeping requires both. I will admit - I didn't much care for sticky...until our first honey harvest - that's a story for another day. And I definitely don't like snakes. One good sturdy pair of rubber boots solved that.
Back to giving John credit. He's the expert. He has studied hard. He still watches beekeeping when we come home from beekeeping. I have learned most of what I know from him. And I test out the stuff I learn from other people ON him!
My background is in marketing, I'm a story teller by nature. So, you will hear me use "the royal honey bee we" and that means MOSTLY John Spillers and I might have helped. I'm good at painting hive boxes. He even puts up with me silk screening logos on them for our nonprofit work (I mentioned I'm a marketer right?)
One of my proudest days happened Spring 2020. It was time to make splits. I had once again learned just enough to be dangerous. Because we had so many hives to inspect, John bought me my own smoker. That's a rite of passage. It meant he trusts me enough to inspect hives and make decisions about the welfare of our bees on my own. AND we can work the hives twice as fast!
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