Meet Bobbie of the Bees

Bobbie Chambers Wilson

Ecdysis Foundation - Lead Beekeeper (Queen Bee)

May 20,2025

Most of my stories begin with … “I read a wonderful book, and … “

My journey to beekeeping began after reading the charming novel by Sue Monk Kidd entitled The Secret Life of Bees.  After reading the book, I wondered if I had ever actually noticed a honey bee before, so I googled honey bee images, and my heart fell in love! A wonderful neighbor gave me my first true bee book, The A,B,C’s and X,Y,Z’s of Bee Culture which was published in 1879 by the A.I. Root Co. From that first book, I started reading everything I could about honey bees, such as The Beekeeper’s Bible written by Richard A. Jones and Sharon Sweeney-Lynch, and found that I talked about them constantly to my friends, relaying all of the cool things I was learning.

Six months later I googled local beekeeping and found a backyard beekeeping club where I was living in Connecticut, so I screwed on my courage and showed up for one of their monthly meetings. I was so nervous that I called a friend ahead of time, telling her that I was sitting in the parking lot but I was afraid to go in, and that the people were probably all toothless and wore overalls.  She laughed and encouraged me, reminding me that all I talked about for the past six months was honey bees, and that she knew that I owned and sometimes wore overalls too, and that I was to get myself in there to that meeting!

The members of the club were amazing and extremely smart. They were educated about flowers, plants, weather, bees and all kinds of fabulous things, and I was impressed with them all. I made lots of friends, and eventually I was the president of that club for seven years!

I read, learned, and talked to beekeepers for three years before I started my first hive. I did not want to just rush into it.  I wanted to learn as much as I could in order to be an educated and kind steward to those beautiful creatures. On the day I got my first hive, I invited a whole pile of friends, my mom, and my brothers to come over and have a “pollinator lunch” that I made to celebrate, consisting of:  apple almond salad with honey dressing, butternut squash soup with honey drizzle, lemon honey bars, and white pine tea with honey. Then we all went out to the bee yard with the package of beautiful bees and my copy of Howland Blackiston‘s book Beekeeper for Dummies!  Howland Blackiston was one of the founding members of the beekeeping club I had joined!  We all suited up in fancy beekeeping veils that I had made, and read the book out loud while we did my first installation of honey bees into the hive!

I learned early to think about things such as innovative pest management techniques rather than chemicals, thinking about the climate and weather and forage conditions of my area and types of honey bees that would be appropriate for a northern climate. I was careful, and listened to who the successful and top beekeepers were around the country, and screwed on my courage again to reach out to them and develop personal relationships and friendships with them. When I had questions or concerns, I could talk to like-minded, successful experts in the field. One of those friends is Kirk Webster, who has continued to be a mentor to me for years.  Kirk is publishing his memoir this year!

I have been very blessed to attend lots of beekeeping workshops, courses and apiculture conventions, culminating with the Cornell Master Beekeeper course. I had some difficulty with that particular course, as I was unnerved by the fact that the Cornell University curriculum had protocols for chemical treatments throughout the year as a method of managing colonies.  My homework, assignments, and projects eliminated chemicals from my protocols, and concentrated on natural integrated pest management and treatment solutions that I felt more comfortable with. The professor scolded me and encouraged me to read through the material again, which I truly (cross my heart) did. I tweaked my project just ever so slightly, still eliminating the chemicals from my protocols.  Of all of the beekeepers I knew in my early days in Connecticut, there were only five of us who used only natural beekeeping techniques.

Bee enjoying the prairie pasque (Bobbie's favorite flower) at Blue Dasher Farm

While I lived back in Connecticut for many years and began my beekeeping journey there, I was originally from South Dakota. Three years ago this week, I moved back to South Dakota, leaving my honey bees at a memorial garden for the victims of Sandy Hook that my beekeeping club helped with. I brought my beekeeping equipment with me to South Dakota, and two months after I moved here, a swarm of honey bees moved into my equipment from somewhere, and voila (!) I got my first hive started here!  It was almost like the bees found me. I was incredibly grateful and just thought that was quite simply fantastic! I called my wonderful best friends who I rent my house from, Lori and Mike, to tell them what happened and assured them that I could move them, but they were so enthralled with the story that they wanted us to keep them on the property. We have been having a wonderful time collecting honey and enjoying the bees!

Since the bee swarm found me, I have always kept empty equipment set out for bees just in case. Miraculously, over the next two years, (on my birthday each year!), I have had a swarm of bees move into them! Isn’t that amazing?!

Here in South Dakota I have also had the crazy, fabulous, beyond my wildest dreams opportunity to work at Ecdysis Foundation as the Beekeeper and an Agroecology Specialist. I treasure every day that here I have a work environment with regenerative practices, healthy agricultural creatures, honey bees, and the smartest, funnest, most supportive colleagues and friends imaginable.  

I hope to see changes in agriculture that supports a healthy habitat for all of us, including the honey bee.The amount of honey bee losses that the country has had this year is staggering.  Dr. Scott McArt, a professor and researcher at Cornell University, is finishing up the research with the studies of the bee losses. He’s done research in order to make a correlation to pesticides and the bee losses.  I have been making friends with him (of course I have) and I think that his studies will be released and published soon, with any luck this coming week.

I have personally seen the impacts of pesticides on my own bees. That first swarm that moved into my equipment in my garage made it through the winter successfully the first winter.  But the second year, after a chemical application, the bees absconded prior to the end of the fall. It was very upsetting for myself and my dear friends, Lori and Mike. I’ve built a relationship with the farmer who farms around my home, who now does me the great service of contacting me prior to his applications of any chemicals to his fields so that I can screen the bees inside for a couple of days during and afterwards. I have a great respect for farmers and encourage them (and all people) to come and see the work we’re doing at Ecdysis Foundation. Visit us here, attend the field days, learn about our research, ask questions, and be heard. 

This is now the 20th year that I have been a beekeeper! I’m so grateful to keep learning and keep advocating for the honey bees and the return to regenerative farming and agriculture practices. That will be the only way, I think, to ensure the health and survival of these magical creatures.

Developing friendships and kindness is key. We can gather more bees with honey than with vinegar.  🍯