Believe it or not, I didn’t always love bees. I used to be the guy who ran from anything with wings. But a journey through health, nutrition, and gardening eventually opened my eyes to the vital role pollinators play. What began as curiosity sparked by the Flow Hive turned into a calling.
My beekeeping journey began in 2015 with a single hive and a deep dive into everything I could learn. I joined local beekeeping communities like SEMBA and A2B2 and started working closely with mentors. One mentor from A2B2 noticed the types of questions I asked and how uneasy I was with many conventional beekeeping methods. They encouraged me to explore biodynamic beekeeping, which led me to the Biodynamics Association of North America and, eventually, to Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary in Virginia.
I studied with Spikenard for two years and had the opportunity to train alongside one of their first certified biodynamic beekeepers. That experience completely reshaped how I viewed beekeeping. It taught me to work with the bees, not over them, and to prioritize their natural instincts, health, and rhythm. Conventional practices often result in colony losses as high as 60%, but Spikenard’s biodynamic methods have shown mortality rates as low as 5%. That shift in perspective lit a fire in me. I knew then that my role wasn’t just to tend bees, it was to be part of changing how we care for them entirely.
I steward bees because caring for them feels like caring for the entire Earth. Most people know, but don’t fully grasp, that if pollinators go extinct, so do we. Bees support the world’s ecosystems just by surviving and providing for their own. Humans and bees are deeply interdependent. Being a messenger for our shared health is profoundly rewarding. This work gives back, even when only one backyard succeeds. Like the bees, I strive to leave the world better than I found it. That’s what drives me: a more bountiful world for future generations, starting today.
