“Honeybees often get a bad rap,” according to Dean Lapp who, with his parents, Herb and Judy, and brother, Steve, operate Lapps Bee Supply in Reeseville.

Lapp pointed out that often honeybees are blamed for stings that were actually delivered by yellow jackets. He calls the touch of a honeybee a “kiss.”

While he has had his share of stings, including once when he needed to go to the hospital for treatment, he said that generally only happens if a hive is unusually aggressive. That occurs when there are some African bee genetics in the hive, but he said bee breeders today try to control that by raising only bees from gentler genetic lines.

Beekeepers also wear protective clothing and equipment to prevent stings.

Lapp loves to tell the story of the amazing honeybee.

By the peak of summer a good colony should grow to include 80,000 bees, each with their own position in life and job.

“It's so amazing because the entire colony is run by females,” he described. “The worker bees are sterile females. The drone's only job is to mate with the queen. Drones are actually bums and at the end of the mating season, they are thrown out of the hive. The bees need all the food they can to survive and they don't want to support anyone who doesn't work.”