by Calvin Robinson

Created on: August 23, 2008   Last Updated: November 01, 2008

I am a civil service worker of 24 years with 7 agencies. My education is a BS degree in natural resource management with a minor in animal science. My experience is too varied to explain but includes farming and carpenter. I began as a park ranger, but left my field of education after only 5 years. I planned on retiring at age 57 with 30 years of service. Recently I was offered an early retirement with 20 years service at age 50. This has really played on my mind since I turn 50 next month and in the last 4 years have become deeply involved in what started as a hobby.

In 2004, after a couple of years of serious interest in beekeeping, I completed a beekeeping course offered by my local beekeeping club. After completion of the course, I discovered my interest in beekeeping is a passion. In my 2nd year of beekeeping, I became a mentor to other beekeepers and was elected vice president of my club. That office gave me a platform for my passion through writing and public speaking. I was on the fast track to becoming a beekeeping "expert". During this development of my hobby, I began indulging my interests from the past. I joined Helium writers workshop and I began building children's playhouses. These interests spurred me to build a website to sell my playhouses and raw honey as well as share my thoughts and links to writing.

My honey business is booming because I am one of the few people keeping bees without using chemicals. My investigative passion for beekeeping caused me to research and study the bee / mite relationship and I manipulated the brood nest to help my bees survive without chemicals. These experiments were successful and soon I was speaking to other beekeepers about how to keep bees without chemicals.

My interest in bees quickly developed into an interest in breeding queens due to my interest in genetics. Within 4 years of beginning beekeeping, I was in business with 2 other beekeepers. I raise queens that are adapted to survival without chemicals. This logically progressed into my raising bees for sale.

My interest in building children's playhouses took off when I built a playhouse for the club as a fund raiser. This showcased my playhouses and caused many orders for them as I traveled around selling raffle tickets. Before long, I was working full time as a civil service worker during the day and full time as a beekeeper in my off hours. I built playhouses in my spare time. I began wondering how I could do everything and considered quitting my government

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