Harvesting Hives

Taking out the frames from her hives and preparing to harvest honey, junior Gigi Boyd tends to her Italian and Buckhead bees at her family’s farm in South Dallas. Since fourth grade, Gigi has been part of the Trinity Valley Beekeeper’s Association (TVBA), which has given her the resources, training and support to fall in love with beekeeping.

“They have a scholarship program, and they teach you everything you need to know, so they helped me build my first beehive,” Boyd said. “I went through lessons, and they gave me a bunch of different tools and my first bee suit.”

Boyd continues to find support from the TVBA throughout high school.

“I kept going back, and it helps a lot in the first few years when you’re having a lot of difficulties with natural predators,” Boyd said. “It was a helpful learning process, but then I started bottling [honey] on my second year and then selling the honey shortly after.”

Now, Boyd has over 15 hives at her farm and an original hive at home. In the second year of keeping hives, she started harvesting honey and selling it to family and friends.

“Everyone kept telling me, ‘Oh, I really like this,’” Boyd said. “I started bottling it, and I used the extraction tools from my beekeeping club.”

Since beginning to bottle the honey, Boyd has developed Instagram and Facebook pages for her business, Gigi’s Bees, and customers can message her online to purchase honey. Being certified by Texas A&M University has also opened the door for more business opportunities.

“They tested [my honey] for all of the pollens, and once you get certified, they put you on their website,” Boyd said. “Through them, a few restaurants and small businesses in Dallas started wanting to buy my honey because local honey has lots of different health benefits.”

Although Boyd only harvests honey in the summer, she tends to the hives throughout the rest of the year as well.

“I try and go once a month and do a full hive inspection,” Boyd said. “Typically, during the winter, I try and go more often so I can give them some food because that’s when they need more help surviving.”

Boyd has overcome many challenges throughout her journey as a beekeeper, especially since she got stung a lot at the beginning.

“At first, I didn’t know how to handle it, but now I don’t really notice it as much,” Boyd said. “I still get stung, but eventually, they get used to you and recognize your scent, so they’re more comfortable.”

When she first started harvesting to sell, Boyd would collect about 1,000 bottles of honey per harvest. As her business grows, she seeks opportunities to continue expanding her beekeeping knowledge.

“There’s always more to learn, which gets me excited,” Boyd said. “They talk about what’s going on in the hive that month, because the winter looks a lot different than the summer.”

Reflecting on her hives and business, Boyd is grateful for the lessons in time management and patience.

“In terms of time, you’re never going to get more time, and these are living things that I’m taking care of, and so that is just something that you have to make time for,” Boyd said. “You only get to harvest once a year, and at the beginning, that was really hard for me, because I was doing a lot of work and getting stung all the time.”

For anyone looking to lean into a passion like Boyd, she advises them to embrace mentorship, just as she leaned into mentors at the beekeeping club.

“Finding a mentor where you can see what the final vision is supposed to look like and what you’re working towards is very helpful,” Boyd said.

HockaHoney

On campus, Hockaday’s beehive provides an opportunity for the community to learn from Italian bees.

Melanie Robinson, the Director of the Institute for Social Impact, enjoys observing the bees from a service angle.

“Bees are fascinating creatures to study from a social standpoint or the physics and science standpoint about how they construct cool places to live that defy anything we’ve been able to create,” Robinson said.

When Hockaday first got the beehive, Teagan Breedlove cared for the bees on a monthly basis. Now, Kirby Jay Carmichael comes to campus to check on the hive.

“Last year, first grade had four sessions with Teagan, and she wore her beekeeper outfit,” Robinson said.

For Environmental Board sponsor and Upper School Science teacher Jessie Crowley, the beehive is integral to providing hands-on applications at school.

“The beehive provides a real-world application in terms of my environmental science class with the importance of pollinators for the way in which humans use the land for agriculture,” Crowley said. “It can hit on life cycles for Lower Schoolers, the importance of providing habitat for these insects and highlighting the fact that insects play such an important role in our ecosystems.”

Crowley notes that the beehive provides a myriad of learning opportunities.

“We’re finding ways to learn from bees,” Crowley said. “We took honey and made microscope slides, which can be informative about what flowers bees are using.”

Robinson believes the bees hold an important role on campus by promoting problem-solving and critical-thinking ideas.

“We’re living in a global climate, so what does it mean to conserve and live alongside nature? That’s a big question with a Social Impact answer,” Robinson said. “It is important for me as an adult to see young people comfortable with nature and curious about it without destroying it.”