Someone told me last week that backyard chickens are the gateway drug to honeybees.

Which is exactly how I went from chickens pecking at my fingers to bees stinging my fingers.

Let me explain. But first …

My four girls are laying again and seem to have weathered the spate of cold weather pretty well. Even my pretty little barnevelder is her happy little self again.

There was a time when I had about 20 chickens. We were on well water at the time and all our garbage went to either the chickens to eat or the burn pile.

I got my first bees a couple years after the chickens, thinking we could sell eggs and honey at the local farmers market. After watching a few YouTube videos on beekeeping I considered myself an expert and set out to build my first beehive.

I bought a bee suit, a smoker and some thick leather gloves.

When the bees arrived, I quickly deduced that they loved their hive but hated me. I’m not allergic to bee stings like my wife is, but each time I made a visit to the back part of the property, those little b———s (swear word that sounds like mustards) would attack my screened mask and finger tips through the gloves. What kind of confounding bee stings your fingertips?

My days of beekeeping were short lived and my hive and bee went to a good friend, who tells me my single hive continues to produce honey among his many acres.

I’ll tell one thing I did like about having bees around: Like my chickens, they’d eat almost anything. When a pear or apple would fall from my tiny backyard orchard (six trees) those busy little bees would go after them and clean up everything I’d left for them.

Now, had I been smart, I would have taken a class on beekeeping offered by the Cooperative Extension.

On Page 2C of today’s Robesonian, you’ll see a couple of classes offered by Robeson County Center of the Extension service.

The first class begins at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 18. The Robeson County Area Beekeepers Association will meet at 455 Caton Road in Lumberton to provide a broad overview of how to get into beekeeping.

That first class will set the stage for a series of classes that over the net several weeks at the O. P. Owens Agriculture Center.

Topics include an “Introduction to Beekeeping, Benefits of Beekeeping, Life Inside the Honey Bee Hive, Apprehensions and Decisions, Basic Equipment for Beekeepers, Obtaining and Installing Honey Bees, Opening the Hive, Knowing What to look for, Different Seasons, Different Activities, Anticipating and Preventing, Potential Problems, Diseases and Remedies, Honey Bee Pests, Getting Ready for the Golden Harvest, Honey Harvest Day, Fun Things to do With Bees, Field Day (a visit to several local apiaries)”

All that for $45 is a bargain for sure. Call Nelson Brownlee at 910-671-3276 for more information.

Fun Fact: According to the Internet, edible honey has been discovered in Egyptian tombs that are thousands of years old. So if you’re not beekeeping for yourself, do it for your prodgeny.

David Kennard is the executive editor of the Robesonian. Reach him by email at dkennard@robesonian.com.