CBC Living Out Loud: Killing the Bees

Beekeeping isn’t all honey and sunshine, oh no.

We thought our bees were doing well. They had swarmed in the spring, sure, but they were still very active and making a new queen. That’s when our beekeeping mentor, Richie Argue, discovered the Foulbrood.  American Foulbrood.  It’s a disease, and once you have it, there is nothing to do but kill the hive. So we did, and I taped it.

It’s the dark side of beekeeping you don’t usually hear about, but it’s very real. This short story about our bee experience aired on CBC’s Living Out Loud on February 1, 2013 (it begins about 3/4 of the way through the podcast). The show was called “To B or not to B,” and the segment is described this way: B is for bees and the honeyed sweetness of a hobby turned bitter.