When a bee stings a person, the venom-containing stinger is left behind and the bee usually dies, explained Alex Fras, a beekeeper in British Columbia who makes the Bee U Organics line of cosmetic products.

WSJ: Bee Venom Cosmetics | Outer Beauty

Concrete, says John Miller, a North Dakota commercial beekeeper, is the last crop.

CNN: What's killing the bees

But no records have come to light yet which would challenge the belief that JD is the country's youngest beekeeper.

BBC: Hebden Bridge youngster's buzz from beekeeping

The demonstrators, some of whom were dressed in beekeeper outfits or wearing yellow and black stripes, have the support of fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Katharine Hamnett who delivered a petition in support of the ban to the Prime Minister.

BBC: Beekeeper protest calls for pesticide ban

She eased into the downshift, starting a hobby as a beekeeper with two hives.

FORBES: Life

In a different urban environment just one train stop from the hubbub of Glasgow's central station, another beekeeper is checking on his hives.

BBC: Making a bee-line for city roofs

Amateur beekeeper Ian Wallace, of Heaton, Newcastle, said the Prince complimented him on his honey.

BBC: Prince Charles at Ouseburn Farm in Newcastle

Peter Hutton, a beekeeper in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, described 2012 as "the most difficult year I have known in my 53 years of beekeeping".

BBC: Honey harvest 'devastated' by wet summer