How to Help Gen-Z Into Beekeeping

0:00 In a world brimming with complexity, few creatures embody harmony like the honeybee. With tireless precision, she dances from bloom to bloom, each motion guided by millennia upon millennia of instinct, each act in service to the whole. And then there are... the beekeepers, watchful stewards of this ancient symbiosis. Part agriscientist, part poet, they move along their hives with the efficiency of mole, levy, and curly, tending to the bee's needs as best they can comprehend, and with the infrequency of a waterfall in the Sahara, sometimes running off flapping and flailing like a penguin on a hot sidewalk. This is their journey. Welcome, welcome to Be Love Beekeeping presented by our great friends and partners in beekeeping, Man Lake. Today's interview is with

1:31 a young beekeeper in Tennessee. She is absolutely great. I know you're going to love her, but interesting thing on kind of a personal note. After she and I completed our conversation, I couldn't help but wonder why more Gen Zers aren't into it, aren't into beekeeping. It seems like everyone I talk to in that demographic, when they hear I'm a beekeeper, they want to know more. They want to see the bees. They want to help with honey harvest. This may sound a little cliche, but it really is a great hobby or more for people of all ages. But it's not that easy to get into. You need a mentor. You need land. It's not cheap getting started. The good news is there are lots of scholarships for each and other programs supported by local beekeeping organizations. Many beekeepers are happy to mentor others, especially young people. So really the question for all of us is this. What am I doing? Think about it. Get a little creative. There really are so many different ways that we can help Gen Z along this path.

2:37 Mentor, offer land for use, teach classes, get involved with schools. Mostly just get yourself out there and give a hand up to someone who may be an important part of the next generation of beekeeping. Imagine someone right now that can't go a minute without their smartphone. And then suddenly they're outdoors and they're engaged in something where they have to be completely present. No texts, DMs, AI, or social media. Hey, that's just my thought for the day. I'm going to try to do more. I hope you will too. Hey, I'd like to welcome to the show today, Young Beekeeper Sydney Stalcup Gad. Did I pronounce that properly, I hope? Oh, you did. You did great.

3:26 Good. Are you still getting used to it? I know you're newlywed. Yeah, it's only been about a month, so it's a big change. Well, congratulations on that, by the way. Thank you. That's a big deal. That's awesome news. I hope we have fun today. I don't get enough young beekeepers on the show, and so I'm really excited to have you. Thank you for joining me. How old were you when you started? I was 18. And what in the world got you interested at 18? A couple years prior, I was visiting my grandparents. And they had a hive living under their front porch deck. At that time, I was a little more afraid of them, but I was interested in them. And I'd seen all the articles about how honeybees were struggling.

4:10 Just seeing them up close, watching them day to day. And then we had some issues with planes flying over, spraying mosquito repellent. And seeing the effect that had on that colony kind of tugged at my heartstrings. And I've just been fascinated with them ever since. I think I talked about them so much that when I graduated high school, a family member decided that getting me a beehive was the best option. So it was like a gift? Yeah, it was a gift. I had an uncle who was into beekeeping. So he got me a hive and caught me a swarm and then dropped them off in my backyard and we've been going ever since.

4:52 That's really cool. Let's talk about the mosquito spray for a second. Have you found any solutions to it? I've not. My grandparents lived in Florida. I don't know what the regulations are there. I do know in Tennessee, in Tennessee you should have your beehives registered. If they're registered, they should alert you if anybody is going to spray anything within so many miles. So you can kind of try to get them to avoid the area you're in or you can do something to kind of prepare. In Florida, it's a little bit different because the planes just fly over and this was in the Florida Keys. So I'm not sure what you can do about it or who to contact. Now, I'm not going to say there's a simple solution. In most places in the US, there is some kind of county department, you know, mosquito abatement department or whatever.

5:46 with your county that you can communicate with. And it's often done at night. And one of the things that most counties will do if you ask is they'll put out some kind of an alert. And that's great if they do it automatically for registered beekeepers. But even if you're registered and do that, they may forget now and then. But if you have some kind of communication with them so you know when it's going to happen, you at least have the chance to cover your hives, whether it's throw a tarp on them or something so that your bees aren't out flying. Of course, at night they're not out flying, but they still need a little cover. If it's during the day, you can put one of those nets over the whole hive. yeah and just to keep them in for the day that's not a cure but it at least helps unfortunately as soon as they're out they're going to go be foraging on flowers that have just been sprayed and stuff and that's a hard one because mosquitoes are a problem i get it but we've got to be more careful with the bees and pesticides are a problem everywhere so yes i would just encourage everybody to reach out to their county or whatever authority it is in their area and see what they can do. Chances are you're not going to talk them into bypassing where your hives are. It's worth a try. Yeah it is. It's definitely worth talking to them

7:16 about the risk with it. I've lost more bees to pesticides than I have mites or anything else really. And you mentioned Florida Keys but that's not where you live. Tell us about where you are. I'm in Sumner County, about 30 to 45 minutes north of Nashville. It's a little bit more rural. The beekeeping community here is awesome. There are a lot more beekeepers here. I'm originally from Kentucky, so coming into a community where there's so many more beekeepers who want to help and our beekeeping association is amazing. Everyone's really friendly and just always someone you can call on and talk to if you have any issues. That's awesome. Getting into beekeeping, what has been the hardest part of the learning curve? There are so many different problems and different situations that can happen in beekeeping and so much of it because things are constantly changing with, you know, the treatments we have and whether or not they still work. So you're kind of having to not only continuously learn, but continuously update and change how you do things. So what may have worked really well last year may not work very well this year. So it's a constant learning curve. And how many hives are you working with now? Right now, I only have about six. That's a great hobby at that point. Once you start getting a little bigger, it can start taking over your

8:46 life. It's at a good spot right now. It's still a little bit of work, but a lot of fun. And another congratulations for getting your master beekeeper designation recently. That is something that I'd recommend for everybody and there are different places that this can happen. Yours I think was from University of Montana. There's Cornell in Florida and I'm sure others around too that people can Google to find out about. One of the things that I saw on your Instagram, you were holding up a frame of autumn honey that looked amazing. Tell me about it. So one of the coolest things I think about honey is how it changes throughout the seasons. I know some people will have different preferences for early spring honey versus late summer honey. The different kinds of flowers bloom throughout the year. We're in our final honey flow. All the nectar they collect this time of year is a lot darker. And it's a lot more richer in flavor, a little bit more like molasses. So we pulled out those frames and I noticed it was darker. And then when we held it up to the sunlight, it just glowed almost like an amber color. I think they're mostly foraging on Aster right now. I'm seeing a lot of those little fluffy purple flowers everywhere. So I believe that's where they're getting most of their nectar, Aster Goldenrod. These are kind of our big things this time of year. How's the flavor profile compared to spring honey? So our spring honey here, I find to be really light.

10:21 It's very floral. It almost reminds me of marshmallows. The fall honey, as the season goes on, it's heavier. It's a lot richer. A lot of people aren't as big on the fall honey. And the darker it gets, it can almost taste like a molasses. I've had honey that's so dark. It's a dark brown. really dark brown. It's very similar to molasses, but when you're kind of that amber golden hue, I think it's the perfect balance between floral and being really rich and having that deeper flavor. One of the things that people will find if they go to Nobby this year or I went to Epimondia in Copenhagen last year, they had a world honey bar there and they had people bring honey from all over the world and it was so fun to taste all these different honeys. And of course, your honey right where you are can taste different during different times of the year based on the nectar flow. So that's part of the fun. You referred to yourself when we were talking the other day.

11:24 I don't know if you remember this. You called yourself the crazy bee lady. Okay, yes. Do you remember why? I don't. I think it may have been driving in your bee suit. Yeah. Tell me about that. I got a call from a neighbor. that they had bees in their siding and they had contractors coming over to take that siding off. They saw the bees, they were scared of them and they needed that project done. So I went over there and my fiance at the time came and helped me. We were moving the bees from the house. It was our first big removal, super exciting. So we pulled the siding back, we were moving the frames, put them in the boxes and we decided to leave the the box there until um after dark that way the rest of the bees would come home and hopefully go into the box and we could get the majority of the hive and not have a lot of stragglers coming back so i went by myself to go pick up the hive that night i packaged them up and i moved them of course they're mad and so i'm putting them in the back seat of my little little four -door sedan and there's a couple hanging out that are on my suit that are not happy with me and so i'm trying to think It's starting to get dark.

12:40 What's the best way to get home? Luckily, it's small town, back roads. I felt like the safest option was to keep the suit on. So I was driving through the neighborhood, the suit, and there comes bees across the front of my veil, kind of buzzing. They're not very happy with me trying to get to my face. So I did see a couple neighbors give me a funny look. I'm sure they were confused what was going on, but we all got home safely, so. And some people think it's dangerous to drive with a veil on because you can't see quite as well. I think you have to be in tune with the situation because it can also be very dangerous, depending on how you react, to get stung while you're driving. I read an account last year, I believe it was in Arizona, of a gentleman who was driving... a pickup with some bees in the back seat. Something happened. We'll never know exactly what, but he ended up driving into a telephone pole and was killed and was a horrible tragedy. And so, you know, just be safe. Whatever that means to you, be smart, be safe. Definitely assess the situation. After I had posted about that, and I understand why people are concerned, you know, it does seem, your vision is not as clear as it would be without it. I also had a couple people message me that another beekeeper they knew had got stung while she was driving and luckily she was okay but she also she ran off the road and towed her car and it could have been much worse if she wasn't on a rural highway

14:13 by herself. Also some people find that it's fine I had an experience after a removal with a lot a lot of bees got out in the car and I was driving not our pickup but a little car. And I found they all went for the windows, and they were hanging out on the hatchback window, and they didn't bother me at all. But you don't know, right? Oh, we had to drive home the other night with some bees in the backseat again. And for the most part, they were OK. But there was just a handful that came up to the front seat, and we didn't have the veils on. I still had the suit on. They were trying to get to the windows, but it was kind of at that point in dusk where they were just kind of confused. Oh yeah, and at dusk they would see some of the lights in the dashboard too. Yeah, I think that's what they were attracted to. Oh man. It's always an adventure. Yeah. How do we get more young people involved in beekeeping? So something you and I kind of talked about, there are people who are interested, but it becomes a lot more difficult when you're, you know, maybe living in a dorm or an apartment and you don't have a place to keep them. It's just kind of hard to get into.

15:28 I'd say get as involved in the community as you can. Your local beekeeper associations, even if you don't have bees, they're welcoming. They always want to see new people coming in. And a lot of these beekeepers would love some help, or they're just happy to, you know, share their hobby with you. So I've had friends who joined the association and befriended beekeepers. One guy I knew ended up helping a beekeeper out. for a whole year before he was able to get into a place where he was able to have his own bees. So he got that hands -on experience with the bees to get him started until he could have his own. And then there was a point where I had moved into an apartment and I wasn't able to have my own bees anymore. I ended up volunteering at a cemetery and I helped take care of their 20 bee hives. And so for two years, I got to enjoy working with the bees and I didn't lose my drive for what I'm passionate about. So in other words, there's reach out to other beekeepers that you can work with, even if you can't have your own bees. I would guess those beekeeper associations also a good way to meet people that have land.

16:39 And you might be able to find someone that you could say, hey, can I just put a couple of hives over near yours or something like that? or do you have some apiaries someplace that have room for more hives and yeah it's a great way to do it you don't have to wait until you own your own five acres or something of property or your own ranch or something there are so many opportunities at these beekeeping clubs and there are so many people who come in there's farmers who come in business owners i've had people come in who want to put hives on the roof of their their buildings so just getting out there and talking to as many people as you can will get you a lot further.

17:21 Yeah, your first hives may be on the roof of a hotel or a business or something. Actually, urban beekeeping like that is my favorite. It's just a different experience. Tell me about it. What have you done? What's it like? My first hives I had were in a urban neighborhood. I just had two in the back corner of a very small yard, but One of the coolest things, I think, was the honey from those eyes. My neighbors had a bunch of different gardens, but one of my neighbors had plum and peach trees. And the bees are over there a lot, and I have honey from that hive that almost tastes like plums. So that was really cool. I think they're a little bit healthier, too, in my experience. I deal with less pesticides in the city than I do out in the country, where I'm worried about farmland and I'm not as aware of what's going on around me. So having them in more urban neighborhoods, smaller gardens, there's not going to be spraying that drifts.

18:19 There's also going to be things blooming at all different times during the summer because instead of it being a monofloral situation you've got all kinds of things going on which is awesome for the bees and makes good honey too because it has so many different varieties of nectar in it. The amber honey we were talking about earlier came from our urban bees here on the roof of a shop right now. They're quite happy. Give us an idea for someone that hasn't done that before. What are some of the hurdles you had to jump through? Like was it hard to get the bees up there? Was insurance required? Any of those things that maybe we don't think about?

19:00 So the shop we're working on luckily is owned by a family member. So we do not have insurance there. That is something I would recommend everybody looking into. Just keep yourself safe and those that could be working there. On this podcast you often hear a lot of talk about winter preparation and there are many different philosophies mostly involving hive insulation. But what you haven't heard until now is a solution where insulation is built right into a traditional wooden hive body. That's what Man Lake just did created an insulated wooden hive and really guys this is a big deal. I hope you'll take a look at it.

19:42 Beekeepers have been trusting Man Lake for over 40 years. So if your winter prep involves feeding, mite treatments, new insulated hives, or even hive hugger insulation for your current hives, you can find it all in one place. And right now Man Lake is offering podcast listeners $10 off your next order. Just enter code MLBlove10 at checkout. That's manlakeltd .com. discount code MLBlove10. The hardest part for me is getting the equipment up and down to access that area we have to use a ladder. I generally will always take my husband with me or other times I've taken my dad just because I need an extra set of hands.

20:29 It's just kind of a pain because you're taking things down piece one at a time. So it'll take me a couple of trips up and down the ladder to get all my equipment up there safely. Also making sure you're okay with heights just because if you get stung you can't run away You just need to I don't recommend running away anyway, but you you got to stay calm and just relax and Slowly finish what you need to finish before you can get out of there. Why is advice already? Give me an idea of some of the things that you do With your bees. I know you're getting into some education and other things now what I would like to do is For my business, more removals, more education. I love talking to people about them.

21:14 I especially love going to schools and talking to kids. They ask some of the best, best questions. I have so much fun with them. I got to talk to a Girl Scout troop last year and that's been my favorite teaching experience so far. At some point when we have a better area for a more accessible apiary, I would love to... have people come in and Do some hive experiences So they can see what it's like get to see honey bees up close how the hive works where their honey comes from I think it makes a big difference in people's minds when they're shopping for honey Knowing your beekeeper makes a big difference Yeah, and knowing some of the questions to ask. Yeah, because they've been more involved All right. It's that time. I warned you you get to share with us a wild and crazy beekeeping story Can you think of one? I can tell you my favorite, my favorite beekeeping experience I've had. I feel like this is the start to most of my favorite beekeeping experiences. Everything started out going wrong.

22:18 There was a coffer swarm, the biggest swarm I have ever, ever caught. And they're tangled up in this grapevine, just the most inconvenient spot. So we're trying to get them into trying to find the queen, trying to shake them into a box. And as soon as I got them in a box, they took flight and we're moving somewhere else. You don't want people to be afraid of them. And there's just this massive cloud of bees. We're in a neighborhood and we're trying to like follow them, see where they're going to congregate. So hopefully we can catch them this time. But just standing there, there's just a moment where all I could do is just wait for them to find another spot to land and to congregate again.

23:06 standing there in the cloud of thousands of bees where when they were whizzing past you could feel the vibration from their little wings and of course in a swarm they're more docile so not concerned about anybody being upset or stinging me it was just incredible to stand in a cloud of tens of thousands of bees it's just almost magical for lack of a better term they ended up congregating on another large branch of grapevine that was kind of paying them down. So I ended up on a ladder. My mom was helping me. She ended up, you know, shaking the branch a little bit to get them in the box. And we got most of them in the box, but a large portion of them ended up on my head. I think that was the picture I sent. I ended up getting the rest of them in the box. They all marched in. And I did almost all of that with a large chunk of them on my head. It was just... So amazing to be, you know, surrounded by them and feeling the hum and the vibrations from the swarm. I've almost never felt more relaxed while working. Isn't that crazy how all that energy can make you feel relaxed?

24:22 And that's why it's very therapeutic for some people. Something I've always really been interested in is the frequency that a hive hums at is in the key of C. which is the same frequency they use in sound and music therapy. It's the same frequency that helps regulate your heart rate and your nervous system. So it does actually have some therapeutic properties to it. Absolutely. We've had the head of Hives for Heroes on the show a while back and it was interesting talking about how therapeutic it can be for people with PTSD and other things that they may be dealing with. And there are quite a few prisons around the country that are doing this as kind of a therapeutic and learning thing for people that are incarcerated. And we forget about some of those other health benefits. We often talk about honey and propolis and bee venom and things like that. But we forget about just that and just the... the wonderful smell coming out of a hive.

25:28 It's not easy to be that relaxed when you're new at it and there's all these bees going around because our natural human reaction is, ah, panic, right? It definitely takes a while to acclimate to them, but the more you're around them, you can almost read them. Just from hearing their buzz, you can tell if they're in a good mood, if they're in a bad mood. There have been times I've opened up a hive. and the sound they make is so much higher pitched than their normal buzz. There are times I open the hive and I'm like, you know, I'm going to come back to you all tomorrow. Really don't seem like you want me in here today.

26:08 I love to hear that because I do the exact same thing from time to time. And that's one of the beauties about being a hobby beekeeper is you have the time to do that. If you're a commercial beekeeper, which my hat's off to them. They work so hard, and they do such a great job. But they don't have time for that. And that's unfortunate. But those of us that just love the bees and want to spend time with them do. And if there's a day that they don't want us around, I love being able to have the time to respect that. And I've also learned the lesson from times that I knew they didn't want me around. And I forced my way anyway, because you need a treatment today or something. And they let me know it. There's definitely been times where I'm just like, I'm looking at the weather and I only have one sunny day. And I'm like, we just have to do this when I can close them back up and give them their space until they're in a better mood. I like I love that I have the ability to do that. Couple other things before I let you go. Did you have any other thoughts for young beekeepers? Yeah, I think. One of the reasons beekeeping can be such an important hobby to have in this period of life when things are moving so fast and things can be quite chaotic. Beekeeping can teach you a lot of skills that are really important for life in general. It can teach you presence, patience, control, when to let go. It can help you with grounding or regulation. You have to be present

27:39 when working in beehive. because there are so many tiny, tiny things that if you miss, it can be detrimental to the health of your hive. Noticing these tiny, tiny things can also completely change the experience for you. You're noticing the different colors of the pollen, maybe bees coming out of their cells for the first time. Things like that just make it so special. It can also teach you patience because sometimes you want things to go a certain way and no... No matter how good of a beekeeper you are, no matter what you do, sometimes the bees are going to do what they want to do. That's another thing with control and letting go. Because when I first started beekeeping, I wanted to be in control of everything so badly. And you just can't. You can do your very best. There are different methods that are better than others. But sometimes the bees are just going to do what the bees are going to do, just like we mentioned with the sound therapy.

28:41 The regulation for your nervous system, especially all the stressful little things going on in this period of life. It's a good way to relax Ground yourself bring yourself back to the moment. I know I learned patience Because you can't speed up anything about bees They're gonna do things in their time and even harvesting honey and spinning out honey you can't do it fast. You can't just say, hurry and drip down faster, you know, honey. So it's patience all around. As someone who's doing removals now, have you had any in an unusual place or some that really surprised you? So recently we had a removal in a tree. We've done tree removals before. Generally, they're taking down the tree anyway, so we were able to cut into the tree.

29:35 and remove the combs. My husband and I recently got a phone call. Another tree company was taking down a tree and there were bees in them. And so we went out to take a look at them the day before. And we just saw a little, a little entrance where the bees were coming in and out. We went there late at night, went ahead and closed it off. So hopefully nobody else was in and out. And the next day the tree company cut about a 12 foot section of the tree. and they used a crane to put it on a trailer. And so we ended up bringing it home and my husband whittled it down to about six feet. It's about four, a little over about four and a half feet in diameter.

30:18 Whoa, that's a big tree. Yeah. So four and a half feet in diameter, 12 feet long on your trailer that had to have weighed a thousand pounds or something. It was about 2 ,000. We've got it. down to about a thousand pounds now it's i think six three six four tall we had to use a um caterpillar we got some chains we lifted it upright and it's got a little roof on it right now that hive is strong they look healthy we're gonna just let them continue as they were but i i hate taking apart colonies wild colonies and trees because as good as we can make a beehive we cannot replicate how great an actual tree is for them. So you've just found a place in your yard or something to leave this four and a half foot wide now six foot tall tree with a beehive in it and is this like a like a little roof over the front porch kind of thing? Yeah so it's plywood right now we're working on designing a new roof for them so that way once the colder weather moves in, it's going to be better for keeping them dry.

31:31 So we're going to do kind of a hatched roof, make sure the water runs off of it and any moisture that comes up, any condensation through the winter will run off the sides instead of running down into the colony. That is so cool. You need to send me a picture of that. I want to see it. Yeah. For sure. Okay. Hey, Sydney, thanks for being with me. It's been fun, and I'm so happy for you on your journey. I mean, seven years, you're a long ways into it already. You are really going to be able to help mentor all kinds of other people through this big journey that you're now on. So welcome aboard. Thanks for having me, Eric. This is great. Thanks again for joining us on the number one Be Love Beekeeping podcast presented by Man Lake. Another big thank you goes out to Vita Bee Health for their support.

32:24 Vita's Varroa Control range of products includes Epistan, Epigard, and now Varroxan. Extended release, oxalic acid strips. If you haven't yet, hey please subscribe to and follow the show, tell your friends about it and click on over to BeLoveBekeeping .com to sign up for our free newsletter. If you have a guest suggestion or a topic you'd like discussed on the show, shoot me an email eric at BeLoveBekeeping .com and remember if you're not just in it for the honey or the money, you're in it for the love. See you next week.