Beekeeping and producing local wildflower honey goes back many years in the Motz family. Actually, Nicholas's grandpa Edmund Motz, my dad, got me started with bees when I was about seven years old, too. We were fruit and vegetable farmers and the bees were an important part of the operation, pollinating our strawberry and apple crops. But for us kids (there were eight of us), the best part was having it on our table all the time. Mother seemed to always have the sweet aroma of our honey in her baking of breads and cookies.

Mpw being the oldest of the bunch, dad put me in charge of learning to work with the bees. At first, getting into the hives with all those bees was very intimidating, but in time I learned to love it, and grew fascinated with the whole process. Working the bees, harvesting the rich honey, and selling what we didn't eat on our local farmers produce market. These were all great life-long learning experiences.

Being able to relive those experiences with Nicholas has been a dream come true for me and a source of a great number of quality hours for Jane, Nicholas and I working together: building hives, working the bees, bottling honey, making candles and hopefully watching him be able to store a bit of "college money" away after all the bills are paid.

Although he doesn't fully grasp all of it quite yet, he's learning what it takes to develop and operate a small business, and most importantly, I believe he will look back with fond memories of being the "Bee Man" one day, too!

Joseph Motz, Nicholas's dad

Edmond G. Motz (Nicholas Grandpa) - 1957

Joseph E. Motz (Nicholas Dad) - 1968

[ return to top ]