Jimmy Hughes & Jimmy Neal

My dad was a beekeeper for 63 years. I grew up in a house where at certain times of the year there were so many bees inside the house that being stung was just a matter of when, not if. So, it's no surprise that for most of my life, I was not a fan of honeybees.

When my dad was dying, he wondered if any of his sons would take up beekeeping. Shortly before he died, I told him I wanted 2 hives and would try to learn how to keep bees.

Because my dad couldn't manage his hives properly the last couple years of his life, the hives I brought home were very spicy (bees were easily agitated and would swarm my head anytime I tried to tend them). Beekeeping was not fun for me. It was not rewarding. Honestly, it was a little miserable. But I decided to learn as much as I could and give beekeeping a real shot.

That same year, I was retrieving a swarm from a friend's tree and fell and broke my heel bone and exploded my foot leaving me in bed for 4 months. I knew Jimmy Hughes from church, but when he brought me cookies and milk while I was laying in a hospital bed doped to the gills on opiates, we became fast friends.

Once I could walk again, I started tending my bees again. Hughes agreed to help me with the bees and learn to do it for me because I needed another surgery that would put me back in bed for weeks. He found that he genuinely enjoyed the challenge and began to learn everything he could about the hobby. The following year he bought his first 2 NUC's.

Since then I've made just about every mistake I possibly can—because apparently that's the only way I learn—but now I have a decent grasp on the process. I love beekeeping. Watching a hive go from a queen, a few workers, and some brood to a thriving colony with tens of thousands of bees all working toward the goal: keeping the next generation alive, is fascinating to me. Seeing a problem and being able to manipulate the hive in the right way to help them grow thrills me to no end.

I want to share that passion with the people of Central Oklahoma.