In Memory of Bill Sheppard How I Became a Beekeeper

Hugh Madison

I have been keeping bees since 1993 and I’m very proud of how far I have come as a beekeeper. To me, honey bees are some of God’s most wonderful creatures. I have not always been a beekeeper. My first career was a stint of 31 years in the United States Air Force.

So how did I choose this beekeeping career? Let’s go back to my years as a high school student. In those days, if you were in high school and you had a drivers license, you could apply for a permit to drive a school bus. If I remember correctly, we were also paid. I believe it was $21 a month.

I applied for the bus driver position, went through the training, and was certified as a school bus driver. I was assigned to bus #73. My route was through Colonial Heights (a housing area just outside the city limits of Aberdeen) and I had a couple of stops on Linden Road between Aberdeen and Pinehurst.

Colonial Heights was started back around 1948 when Robbins Mill came to Aberdeen. I guess a good name for the kids who lived there would be “mill hill brats.”

One of those “mill hill brats” was a kid by the name of Billy Sheppard. Billy was four or five years younger than me and he was one of the students that rode my bus to school every day. One day on the way to school, Billy got a bit unruly so I stopped the bus and put him off. You could do things like that in those days. (Keep in mind, Billy said this happened but I don’t remember doing such a terrible thing.) Anyhow, Billy had to finish his trip to school via his two feet. He said that he promised himself that some day he would get even with “ole Hugh” for throwing him off the bus.

Well, he did get even. In 1992, my wife and I came back to Aberdeen after completion of my Air Force career. My wife’s parents owned a large farm about five miles west of Aberdeen and they gave us some land to build our home on. I am not a farmer (remember I was a “mill hill brat”) so I needed something to occupy my time. Someone mentioned beekeeping. I asked several people “How do I get into beekeeping?” I was told “contact Bill Sheppard.” Remember Billy? He is the one I supposedly threw off the school bus. I looked up his phone number and I called him. I asked, “Billy, do you remember me?” And I know he is thinking to himself “I sure do remember you, you sorry so and so.”

I told Billy I might be interested in learning to keep bees. His reply was “Great, come see me and I’ll help you get started.” I’m sure he was thinking “now I get even.” I believe his objective was to lure me in by saying “start with one hive”, and then “split the hive and make two.” And after I had two, he would keep needling me “to split and make four.” Then split and make eight, and so on and so on. All the while, his primary objective was to have me keep spending money on bees and equipment until I was bankrupt, thereby getting even with me for tossing him off the school bus.

Well, he didn’t bankrupt me, but he did cause me to become so interested in honey bees that I was able to get up to 80 colonies in three beeyards but that wasn’t good enough for Billy. “You need to learn how to raise queens and start making nucs to sell” said Billy. And I did just that. With Billy’s encouragement and mentoring, I enrolled in the North Carolina State Beekeepers Association (NCSBA) Master Beekeeper Program, and on May 30, 2006 I became a Master Beekeeper. Something I am very proud of. I also own a small bee supply business.

Billy and I became very close friends and we went to a lot of places together to talk to folks about bees. We conducted a lot of “field days” together and had some truly amazing times. I’m going to miss Billy.