Some people couldn't think of anything worse, but for Pat Shiels and a growing number of Canberrans, nothing beats suiting up and collecting honey from a beehive.
Mr Shiels and his wife Lyn are fascinated by bees, share a love of beekeeping and have done so for almost 30 years.
The pair are regularly tasked with collecting unwanted swarms and with five beehives in their Torrens backyard they have been stung countless times.
But it doesn't bother them because they say keeping bees is fun.
''There is nothing unusual about the hobby,'' Mr Shiels said.
The apiarists are among a growing number of hobby beekeepers taking up beekeeping in suburban backyards.
Mr Shiels, president of the Beekeepers Association of the ACT, said the majority of almost 200 association members, some with 30 hives, were hobby beekeepers in urban environments.
He also said there were ''hundreds more'' unaccounted for in the capital.
Apart from the benefits of having a never ending supply of honey, Mr Shiels said the environmental benefits of beekeeping were extensive.
''A lot of young people have become really interested because we're going back to the days of backyard gardening with vegetable gardens and chooks,'' Mr Shiels said.
''Bees are a part of the pollination process, pumpkins grow better, all sort of things grow better if you've got bees in close proximity.
''I think that's why we're seeing more and more people keeping bees.''
Mrs Shiels said most food crops in Australia were dependent on honey bees for pollination.
Almond, pumpkin, apple, orange, pear and peach crops are ''heavily dependent'' on honey bees. ''You would get a lot less crop without bees there,'' Mrs Shiels said.
A Torrens resident a few doors up from Mrs Shiels recently said to her, ''You haven't got the bees here have you?''
When Mrs Shiels asked the neighbour how he knew he replied, ''My pumpkins didn't do any good.''
Mr Shiels said the association's membership was increasing daily.
More people are seeking information about backyard beekeeping and the problems associated with it, attending programs or simply paying for services such as collecting unwanted swarm bees.
With more people becoming involved in beekeeping, Mr Shiels said it was vital to foster good beekeeping practices. He said beekeepers should be required to register their apiaries and would like to see more monitoring of hives and bee diseases in the ACT.
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