Newspaper Article

HONEY OF A HOBBY

Allis, Sam

2002

Overview

Still in his chalk stripes, [Philip A. Mason] shoots over in his Porsche to Bay 11. He turns up the air conditioning because bees are less active in the cold and he expects to take some home. He walks into the area to find a number of terrified postal workers cowering behind cardboard boxes, the blood drained from their faces, as upward of 25,000 bees play tag. He tells everyone to stay still and then to open, slowly, the bay doors. Many bees leave. Mason then gingerly carries the three boxes, one by one, to his frigid car. Like an upland hunting dog near a covey of quail, his interest in bees is complete. After his epiphany, Mason attended bee meetings, devoured bee books. In 1993, he bought the whole enchilada and began commuting to Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y., to get a PhD in bees (entomology) under the late Roger Morse, who, he explains, was to bees what E.O. Wilson at Harvard is to ants. All while keeping his law practice alive. Five years later, he got his degree, with distinction. His wife identified him at the time as \"a trophy grad student.\" Mason doesn't just study bees. He has 300,000 bees in his hives in Brookline and more on Nantucket. Every year, he and his family take the Nantucket honey and bottle it in Brookline to sell on island. (Incredibly, honey is not judged by its taste, but rather criteria such as color and clarity.)

• Publisher: Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC
• Subject: Beekeeping / Hobbies / Mason, Philip A / Personal profiles