People Pleasing

-Posted by Isaac

Despite my very best efforts to anger people with this blog, it appears I’m still failing.

Sales continue to skyrocket. Jayne, Katie and Hannah bounce through online orders in the honey house.

And I struggle to keep up with the grocery store honey.

Even the bees are overwhelmed with the rush.

The pollen flows in torrents, and we can’t begin to keep up with these exploding hives.

We’re busy!

The online sales, the groceries and the nucs… it’s like a bee business blitzkrieg. We’re overwhelmed. And all during a pandemic. The political hate coming at me from a few blog readers doesn’t seem to stem the tide one bit. You guys are still buying stuff like everybody agrees with me 100%. I have failed.

But what was it we all learned as children? If at first you don’t succeed…

Let’s try this route: I don’t like you.

Well… not you. You’re cool. We could hang out. It’s the general you I’m talking about. The 99% plus the irksome one percent.

The last time I posted something about nucs, I got 10 or 12 emails, people wanting to buy! buy! buy! I kindly and responsibly responded. No, you can’t have one. We wholesale these things.

But why??

Why? As I said above, I don’t like you.

We retailed nucs a few years ago and I learned my lesson. It took years off my life. Not that there wasn’t more than a few enjoyable moments. Not that I didn’t meet many many wonderful people. It wasn’t the general experience. It was the one in one hundred that got me. Those are the people you remember. We don’t retail nucs because I can’t take the 1%.

Who are these people?—the few and the proud. And the loud. Are they the same people you see on Facebook?

You know, the one who posts an outrageous meme which strings along 53 comments. Half of which are the author’s using ALL CAPS!! Could it be the same people who go to a beekeeping blog to seek political confrontation? I wonder. What if we had a venn diagram?

Or maybe I just need to toughen up. The truth is, I want to be liked by everyone, and the world just isn’t built like that. Come to think of it, maybe this is the reason I had such a short lived teaching career. If only we had a pandemic during my years in front of the classroom… maybe I would’ve lasted. It could’ve been more of a wholesale approach to science education.

As it is, we’re going the easy route on the nucs.

Wholesale.

Once they’re gone, they’re gone. In July when they swarm due to lack of space— not my problem. In December when they die due to lack of treatment— not my problem.

My only problem is getting them made. It takes time. And lately, time is scarce. Today however, I had a crew.

They were a big help.

Three of them went fishing.

One of them started in a beekeeping flurry, but found that napping in the dandelions was an easier way to pass the time.

Hey, beekeeping can be hard work.

But it’s nowhere near as hard as people pleasing.