My brother-in-law just started beekeeping last weekend. He’s been interested for some time, but last summer he came to visit, saw my hive, and clearly started thinking about it. A year later, he’s got a hive, a nuc, and he’s off and running.
Beekeeping is a funny hobby. It’s about helping bees flourish and learning about them while you do it. And it’s about keeping the knowledge and the love of bees flourishing too. So when a beekeeper can help another one along, it’s like the colony dividing and swarming, flourishing in another location.
So in a way, maybe I’ve done my first walk-away-split and I didn’t even realize it.
If nothing else, there’s more bees in the world, and in today’s environment, that a very, very good thing.