>Regarding you pitch for honey...Our family finally quit using honey >some years back. We were raising bees and I accidently backed into >a stack of"supers" (for non bee keepers: the white boxes in which the bees >collect their nectar and pollen)...notwithstanding my daughter's and my >totally-enclosed-in-bee-suits and bonnets configuration, we both got >stung more times than I care to recall, since the tower of power came >tumbling down. Gadzooks! The bees were like a black roaring cloud of hell >itself. And, as luck would have it, there wasn't a nice river or pond into >which we could dive...and we were on such a steep mountain slope that running >downhill would have been sure suicide...So. >Never forget the event...I took it as some sort of karmic signal to >quit stealing their hard earned sticky food from them. I've never bothered >'em since...the sweet little critters...and have been left alone myself. >But, at least it's raw. Wow, Ric! I got stung 4 times once when my lawnmower accidentally ran over a hive in my back yard that I didn't know was there, but I can't blame the little critters for that! I have visited beekeepers and saw a queen up close and personal. I even thought about trying to raise bees myself, but never got started. Your story is certainly a beekeeper's nightmare! I still rob the busy little guys (2nd hand) occasionally, mostly for their pollen.