Why Bees and Beekeeping?? Bugs, Beekeeping class, Clubs, and Grandfather!

The very knowledgeable Connor…intellectually curious Ben and empathetic nature lover Catherine from McArt Lab at Cornell.

Connor’s real interest was in vector biology. Being from New Hampshire, he always wanted to tackle lyme disease and got interested in entomology. He took a bee-related course that got him started working with honey bees which is so complex and represents all things that interested him, namely, vector biology, entomology, and integrated pest management. According to Connor, interestingly, honeybees are at the intersection of the agricultural system and the biological sciences, and he fell in love with bees😊

For Ben, when he was twelve years old and wanted to make money, his grandfather suggested beekeeping. He convinced his parents to buy a hive of bees. Maintaining his first hive was challenging, he got stung and really thought he made a terrible decision. He was thinking of getting rid of his bees, he realized he will try one more time. He researched how to handle bees properly, got proper beekeeping gear, and the next time around didn’t get stung! Ever since then he has been fascinated by the inner workings of the hive. His bees didn’t survive the winter though. Later he learned about varroa mites which caused difficulties in hive maintenance. Ben comments on how he learned about IPM (Integrated Pest Management) at Cornell and understood how monitoring mites can help maintain the hives over the winter. His goal is to make others aware of IPM as he wants other people to be more successful than he was initially!

Catherine has always enjoyed bugs growing up. However, her journey to bees was very random, one day she thought, when she went to college either she will play hockey or will join a beekeeping club 😊 Freshman year at Cornell, she did join a beekeeping club and also took a beekeeping class. After that, it was “ all bees every day” for her. She started researching bees immediately at the McArt Lab and truly feels lucky to have found this journey leading to bees. She loves hanging out near the hives and observing bees for hours without getting bored.

Catherine is also interested in the social management aspect of beekeeping, what beekeepers are actually doing, and how the industry operates on a larger scale.