There definitely seems to be more of a buzz about keeping honey bees! Perhaps its the economic downturn and the upsurge of people interested in allotments and growing their own food.

Obviously the honey bees plight has had a lot of publicity across the globe on TV, radio and in the press. So Im glad to see an upsurge of beekeepers especially the ones that really care for their bees, regarding them almost as pets (I wouldnt try petting them though).

My observation of new beekeepers though is that the majority are 40-50+ in age, not a bad thing at all but it would be great to see more people with young kids taking up beekeeping and getting their children involved. I think its very important to get kids involved in beekeeping and would love it if primary schools asked local beekeeping experts to come and talk about beekeeping, maybe even arrange a field trip to an apiary (would require a lot of small suits though). At worst teachers could use beekeeping as a class project.

Overall Im very happy to see so many people interested in keeping bees and perhaps pursuing a more self sufficient and less wasteful lifestyle. We just have to make sure to get young people involved and interested in bees and beekeeping.