Carole Livingston won’t have any trouble finding things to do in her yard this spring. She has four backyard bee hives, and one is getting ready to swarm. Managing a swarming hive, where some of the bees will leave to find a new location, is just part of what she will be doing as a beekeeper at the start of a new season.

 “Every spring, a healthy hive wants to swarm because that’s how they need to populate,” she said, referring to the activity where part of the hive will go to a new location to start a new hive. “It’s just how bees are.”

Livingston got interested in beekeeping when she took a class at the LISD Tech Center in January 2022. Don Warner, who is her mentor and president of the River Raisin Beekeeping Club, taught the class.  Livingston wasn’t sure she wanted to pursue beekeeping at first.

“I took the class and I didn’t think I was going to do it,” she said. “It was real overwhelming.”

“Don talked me into getting a hive, so I got a hive and I overwintered it, and then I got some nucs,” she continued. A “nuc,” short for nucleus, is a starter hive. “I started with one last summer and now we have six,” she said.

Livingston said her motivation in learning about backyard beekeeping was agricultural.

“I am just interested in the pollinating,” she said.  “I’m not really a big honey consumer.” 

Livingston is interested in keeping her backyard beekeeping manageable.

“It’s a hobby and I enjoy it, but I don’t want it to be a chore, so I’m going to keep mine to four hives and find homes for the other bees,” Livingston said.

Livingston’s neighbors are not concerned about having several hives of honeybees next door. 

“I went and asked [the neighbors] first because [the bees] have to be 250 feet away from anything,” she said, and the reaction was very positive. 

 “Oh that’s so cool. I wanted to do bees, too,” Livingston said, referring to the neighbor’s reaction.

Learning about beekeeping is an ongoing process for Livingston.

 “I think I get a handle on it and a whole new thing opens up,” she said. “You’re dealing with pest management, you’re dealing with breeding, drone yards and nuc things.”

“That’s what’s so cool about it,” she continued.  “Every season brings a new challenge, a new job to do.”

Warner, who is Livingston’s mentor, said that finding a mentor, and mentoring other people, is what makes a beekeeper successful.  He learned the importance of finding the right mentor the hard way.

“I just wanted bees and I knew a guy who wanted to sell some, so I bought a couple of hives off of him,” Warner said. He called his first attempt at raising bees “a complete disaster.”

“Like so many people, without having a mentor, it failed miserably,” he continued. But then, “I found a good mentor who lived close by and he helped me a lot,” he said. “I just never looked back since. I mentor a lot of people.” 

Like Livingston, honey is not the main reason Warner is interested in beekeeping.

 “My goal is to raise nucs to sell to people who want to get started,” he said. “And I make honey besides.” 

Warner started River Raisin Beekeepers Club 11 years ago. In addition to the Bee Day Festival, the club sponsors a fundraiser every year so that no dues are required for club membership. This year’s will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 9 at Heritage Park in Adrian.