Four Generations of Beekeeping
I’m Stephen Skipper, a fourth-generation beekeeper. I learned from my dad and grandpa, in the bee yards of North Florida and during summers in South Dakota. That family history is where the story of Skipper’s Apiary begins.
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From the Hive,
for the Body
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Some of my memories are of Dad and Grandpa sitting around the dining table, working through problems with the bees. Beekeeping followed us home. There was always something to figure out, and the things they taught me came from working with the hives and paying attention to what was happening around them.
Dad noticed things I didn’t know how to see yet. He could look at the brood and pick up on changes in how the queen was laying. I could see the same frame and still wonder how he knew. Those are the kinds of lessons I want to preserve: the practical knowledge passed from one person to another.
Our family’s year followed the flowers. We traveled south to the orange groves, came back to North Florida for gallberry, and then hauled those same colonies north to South Dakota for sweetclover. The bees went with us.
There was plenty of work, but there were family memories in between. I remember cooking tacos outside a hotel during an orange-grove trip, then relaxing at the pool. Those trips are part of the story, too, alongside the honey harvests and everything Dad and Grandpa taught me.
One principle has stayed with me: the hives should support both the bees and the beekeeper. Caring for the bees belongs in the work.
Today, I make beeswax soaps and lotions under the Skipper’s Apiary name. Behind those products is a family connection to bees that reaches back four generations, and my own experience learning beside the people who came before me.
This shop is also a place to share those memories. Whether you’re here for a bar of soap, a lotion, or a story from the bee yard, welcome to Skipper’s Apiary.