I can't tell you, yet, what makes a beekeeper - but in a future research project I'm planning to look at beekeepers and nonbeekeepers.  In general I want to look at their attitudes toward the environment, political bents and religious leanings, age, gender, education, etc.  It's part of a research program in environmental psychology I'll be developing in the autumn to conduct with my college students.   But I think it will be interesting to see in what socioeconomic, political, religious, and attitudinal ways beekeepers are different and similar among themselves, among commercial, sideliner, and hobby beekeepers, and in comparison to nonbeekeepers.  For instance, what characteristics best predict beekeeping vs. nonbeekeeping or a commericial beekeeper vs. a hobby beekeeper.  
 
I am not a personality psychologist, so I don't have the expertise (or interest) to ask about and analyze personality characteristics like openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, or neuroticism (those are called the Big Five). I will probably be asking you all to participate (it will most likely be an online survey study) - - but since this issue has come up here, I'll also offer you the chance to suggest characteristics I might include in the survey.
 
Thanks,
Wendy Schweigert
Psychology Department
Bradley University
 
p.s. I'm a newbie beekeeper with 2 hives, I fit some of the suggested characteristics except for the young children, weak back, and I'm not balding - - but I do enjoy reading Bee Culture.

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