A B(ee) Student

Current Online Master’s in Education student Tyler Hahn never expected to become a beekeeper. But then the bank across the street from the Cherokee Public Library where he works called one morning to say that thousands of bees were swarming in front of the building. 

His first reaction was, “It’s rural Iowa. Things like that happen.” 

Then he went outside. 

That’s when he saw what had alarmed the usually laid-back bankers: A basketball-sized clump — upwards of 40,000 honeybees — was hanging off a giant Colorado spruce on the library’s property. 

After consulting with city hall and the police sergeant (a beekeeper who was out of town), Hahn reached out to the county naturalist who told him to hold on, she’d be there in 10 minutes. 

“She came in looking like a Power Ranger in her wide ensemble ready to go,” says Hahn, director of the library since 2020. A comedy of errors that started around breakfast and ended as people were sitting down to dinner led to getting the swarm out of the tree and transported to a local park where the bees would eventually become part of educational programming for schools and 4-H groups. 

Then something else happened: The adventure sparked Hahn’s curiosity. Could he keep his own bees? 

“It led me down the road wanting to research everything about beekeeping and talking with local beekeepers,” he says. This included participating in his first honey extraction, where the honey is separated from the beeswax combs, and learning that local beekeepers had upwards of five or six hives in their backyards. 

“I thought, this is bonkers. I would never have thought neighbors would be OK with that, and so a little part of me also got interested in the legal side of beekeeping and what different ordinances look like,” Hahn says. In true librarian fashion, he continued researching and joined beekeeping chat groups. He took an intro to beekeeping course online through the University of Montana. Then, during the spring of 2021, Hahn finally set up his own hive. Unfortunately, it died during a long cold snap, as did a second hive after skunks, with their sting-resistant coats, muscled in. His third and current hive has been thriving for more than two years. 

Hahn says that when he checks on the bees daily, he wears a hood and gloves and has, thankfully, never been stung. 

“I was honestly afraid at first, but there are a lot of different tools and precautions that you can use,” including a little smoker that he puffs to mellow the bees if they’re getting agitated. Overall, he says it’s a misconception that this type of bee is dangerous or a risk if your neighbors are beekeepers. 

“The bees are so sweet and gentle,” he says. “Of course, I wouldn’t want somebody to accidentally get stung or misidentify a bee swarm for hornets, who can be zesty, but not all bees are going to get you like you’re in an Alfred Hitchcock movie.” 

What bees will get you is … more bees. Or, more specifically, more bee swag. Since becoming a beekeeper, family and friends in his “hive” are constantly gifting him with bee-related items, like a bee spatula and bee potholders. He even has a bright yellow cardigan with bees all over it. Just about every bee-themed thing you can think of, he says he has. 

“And the only thing that has stopped the onslaught of bee things this past year has been getting into Harvard,” he says. “Now, of course, it’s Harvard everything.”