A Singaporean In Australia

I had a short conversation with Singaporean Mum, M, about bees. Not birds & bees, just bees. The little exchange, in fact, lasted no more than 3 seconds. If my memory served me right, it went something like that.

I told M I would start a couple of apiaries if I owned a backyard like she did. I got the response that I expected. Who the hell keep bees in their backyard these days? Are we even allowed to at all? Actually yes. I'm not sure about Canada, where one of the masters could be building stuff there now but in Western Australia, many shires allows residents to keep no more than 3 colonies in their backyard. In fact, they even kept the option open by offering a permit should anyone wish to keep more than the permitted quota. Whether or not the permit will be granted is another story of course.

As a kid, my mum always warned me against playing near bee hives. I could die from bee stings, she said. There was a movie called "杀人蜂"; during that era which caught a lot of interests. It was about one or two teachers who died of hornet stings while protecting their pupils during a field excursion gone wrong. She used that movie to further illustrate the point. When I was 12, I got my first bee sting near my primary school at Queenstown while playing table tennis at an outdoor stone table near the community centre along Margaret Drive. Bee stings stink. I didn't further my interest in bees since, not that I had the opportunities really. The reactions I would have gotten from friends would be much, much worse than M should I propose my idea of messing around with bees. To appear as a normal neighbourhood kid, I kept my big mouth shut.

Fate is a very strange thing. It got me to a place I never imagine I would be for more than three decades of my life. Bee remains my friend, especially so now with my cancer nightmare I need proper food more than ever. The food that helps my condition such as broccoli, carrots, apples, grapefruit, avocados, kiwis, onions, all kinds of berries and more, by providing the vitamins and antioxidants that I need happened to be pollinated by honeybees.


Like the master implied, beekeeping isn't rocket science. Whether Asians complicated it or not, I'm not sure. One thing I know, when it comes to matters of nature, you can buy your garden supplies


or you can do it thrifty

it doesn't mean your plants will not grow well so long you get certain concepts right. I think the same goes for beekeeping. You can be a woman or a teen, using even recycled materials for your hives, it can still work out if the passion is approached with a learning mentality, curiosity and the love of trying out new things. I agree that beekeeping can never be a type of mainstream income realistically. It is good enough as it is, being a hobby that may generate a small amount of income. That beats some hobbies that tends to turn out as a cash blackhole.

Ok, having shared the cock and bull stories, I'm still stuck at square one. At least that's better than square zero. That was where I was 2 years ago. The step towards square two will happen. I give myself 5 years from now.