Bill Mullins needs very little introduction to anyone who’s shopped the Market but it’s fun to feature him anyway.
The insurance business brought Bill’s sunny outlook and friendly smile to Greensboro from Alabama. We’re all lucky that the folks who transferred Bill and Carol here didn’t give him a choice. They told him his job was in Greensboro and he understood immediately.
Bill began keeping bees in Alabama and continued here under the banner of Quaker Apiaries. He first came to the Market some thirty eight years ago after one of his insurance company employees suggested he check into selling here. She knew he had a good product because she was one of the three hundred or so employees who received a jar of honey from him each year.
Beekeeping is not all honey and stings. One hundred hives give Bill and a dedicated helper a lot of work in good times and even more now that hive collapse is a factor. (Bill says he’s lost eight hives of his hundred hives so far this year.) The annual cycle includes cleaning hives and feeding and medicating bees in spring and winter then harvesting in fall. He attributes his honeyed success to the Tulip and many flowering trees near his house.
Bill has made many friends and associates beyond the Market and in beekeeping circles. He’s a North Carolina Master Beekeeper, a Life Member of the NC Beekeepers Association plus holds memberships in the International Bee Research Association and the Guilford County Beekeepers Association. Yes, we have a King Bee in the Market.
Drop by Tables four and five on Aisle A and Bill can give you a little lesson on the joys and heartbreaks of keeping bees. He’ll enjoy the talk and so will you.
