My Beekeeping Journey
In 2012 while studying in Chile, I ended up volunteering for Marisol Coñuaquil of Colmenares Trankurra. Marisol is a Mapuche indigenous beekeeper working hard to bring prosperity and recognition to her historically marginalized community. In This photo my friend Dale and I experienced the excitment of our first swarm. I knew from our experience in Trankurra that bees would be a part of my life.
My college friends and I, along with Cuban video artist Adrian Curbelo Díaz, received a Nat Geo Young Explorer's grant to make a film about beekeeping in Cuba, Biographies of Beekeepers. Cuban beekeeping is unique due to the island’s isolation and the government’s ban on chemicals to control pests. Even the ungodly amount of stings we got while filming were not enough to deter me from starting a beekeeping project of my own!
After my trip to Cuba, I befriended the local bee legend and owner of Bee Healthy Honey, Khlaed Amalghafi. Khaled first started beekeeping as a child in Yemen, and has been keeping the tradition alive here in the bay area since the 80s. I apprenticed under Khaled doing live bee removals and helping to manage his apiaries.
While working a construction job, I would spend hours listening to Solomon Parker’s treatment-free beekeeping podcast while I swept floors and threw scrap wood into dumpsters. One day, after listening to a talk by Les Crowder and Sam Comfort, I realized something. I could use all of this scrap wood to make beehives. Due to it’s simplistic design, I was drawn to the top-bar hive and have been building them ever since with recycled materials.
To gain more knowledge in the field of top-bar beekeeping I traveled to Hilo Hawaii to work under Jen Rassmussen of Paradise Nectar Apiaries. She is a leader in both top-bar and treatment free beekeeping. I continue to learn so much from the incredible work Jen and her partner John are doing.
I feel blessed to further treatment-free beekeeping and top-bar beekeeping in the Bay Area and wherever else I may be.