From the Book, Bad Beekeeping, by Ron Miksha

Idyllic. Peaceful. The Sun Shines on the Beekeeper.

The person who has never worked around bees probably never will. Unless, of course, she picks up a book like this one and becomes mesmerized by the eccentricity of it all. There is the unfounded, yet widespread, belief that the beekeeper lives a happy, pastoral, independent, nomadic lifestyle. Sounds like fun. The beekeeper, we want to believe, is a kindly, intelligent creature who gently tends some honeybee friends for fun and profit. The beekeeper takes time to smell the clover, taste the nectar. Most people who were not the children of beekeepers have this image somewhere in their minds.