The Ruth Stout of Beekeeping?

Gene Logsdon does it the easier way:

snip:
I hesitate to describe the way I produce the 8 to 10 quarts of honey we eat every year (we use honey, maple syrup, and sorghum molasses for sweeteners but seldom use honey in cooking or baking). I ignore almost all the rules in bee books about producing honey, and I have done so for eight years without any ill effects at all. Commercial beekeepers will say I’ve just been lucky, and I suppose to some small degree that’s true. But you, too, can easily be that lucky while reducing the complications of beekeeping to a very simple, low-cost, and low-labor activity.

The reason I can ignore the “right” ways of beekeeping is that I allow the bees to perform their natural functions as naturally as possible in the domesticated environment I provide them.