The Official NCSBA Song:

MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC .... The whole world loves music. One of our beekeepers, John Rigdon, has expressed his love for honey bees and NCSBA by composing "My Gentle Honey Bees" as our official theme song. We presented John with a plaque at our 1995 Spring Convention in Southern Pines in recognition of his accomplishment. Thanks, John; your tribute to honey bees is forever recorded here. It will refresh our spirits each time we sing it!

 MY GENTLE HONEY BEES
© John Rigdon,
North Carolina Music "Meister"

1

I've a hive of honey bees
Nestled down among the trees
They live in peace and at ease
My thrifty, gentle honey bees.
(Chorus)

6

Long before the first snow
The drones know they soon must go
After a life lived in vain
Their last days are spent in pain.
(Chorus)

2

In spring they await the last freeze
Blossoms will soon be in the trees
And when the nectar starts to flow
My bees will get it, don't you know.
(Chorus)

7

Fall has come, summer has gone
The sweet nectar flows no more
Only the workers and queen
Will live to see the next spring.
(Chorus)

3

Then in May and weather warm
I look up and see a swarm
And high up in a tree I see
A swarm of gentle honey bees.
(Chorus)

8

When in winter's cold weather
In the hive they cluster together
And eat honey, Oh, so sweet
From it they get their only heat.
(Chorus)

4

In June still more flowers bloom
There is never time for gloom
They will gather nectar plenty soon
I super up to make more room.
(Chorus)

9

The cold nights are getting shorter
Days are now getting longer
Spring is just around the corner
Bees and their keepers start all over.
(Chorus)

5

For our work we now get our pay
We just take away the honey
Nature's purest and sweetest sweet
The loveliest food we can eat.
(Chorus)

10

Just a hive of honey bees
Nestled down among the trees
I don't want killers, please
Just some gentle honey bees.
(Chorus)