It has been several months since some of the beekeepers of Bee-L participated in our beekeeper survey.  The biggest criticism we received was that we did not ask enough questions.  Yet we have spent a lot of time and computer pulses analyzing the large amount of data we collected.

Wendy Schweigert and I have written an article that will be published in Bee Culture in an upcoming issue.  But I though I would share a few of our finding with Bee-L in advance of the BC article.
We received over 1300 replies from 5 continents. Africa and Antarctica were the only continents left unrepresented. Results from Africa would have been interesting.  We're pretty sure there aren't many beekeepers on Antarctica though.

Glomming the 1300 replies together we find the average beekeeper is a 52 year old male who has been keeping bees for 9 years and maintains 4 hives. He used no treatments to fight mites last year but is comfortable using essential oils, powdered sugar, or drone trapping to control Varroa mites. He is also comfortable with not treating for mites at all. Politically, he is a moderate; religiously, he believes in God and practices a religion semi-regularly. He conserves energy and recycles. He likes animals in general. He has a stable personality, is a conscientious introvert, and tends to be agreeable and open to new ideas. The "typical" however often describes no one particular person. 

The average is of course an oversimplification of the data. Of our responses, 5% described themselves as Commercial beekeepers, 12.7% as Sideliners, and 82% as Hobbyists. The commercial beekeepers have kept bees for a mean of 23.4 years and maintain up to 16,000 hives, although 200 is the most frequently reported number. The sideliners have been keeping bees for 13 years and keep up to 700 hives, although 10 hives is the most frequently reported number for this group. The hobbyists have been keeping bees for an average of 7.3 years and keep 2 or 3 hives, although as many as 152 were reported.

Among the more interesting findings was how well educated beekeepers are. Only 1.2% reported their highest level of education being some high school or less; most of these beekeepers were too young to have graduated from high school. Another 5.8% indicated they had a high school degree, 28.7% had some college or a 2-year degree, and 19.7% had a 4-year college degree. Most impressive, 12.6% have some post-college education and a full 32% have earned a graduate degree. This pattern is fairly consistent across commercial, sideliner, and hobbyist beekeepers. The percentage of beekeepers with graduate degrees is over 3 times that of the general population.

A personality test was imbedded in the survey that measured Extroversion, Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, and Conscientiousness. Beekeepers differed from the general population on all but one of these traits – conscientiousness. Both beekeepers and the general population tend to score high on conscientiousness. On the other traits, beekeepers tend to be less extroverted, more open to new ideas, more emotionally stable, and more agreeable than the general population.

These are some of the highlights from the survey. The upcoming article in Bee Culture will contain more. Once the article comes out, if you have any questions, feel free to contact Larry Krengel ([log in to unmask]) or Wendy Schweigert ([log in to unmask]). If you are unable to read the article in Bee Culture (either in print or online) we may be able to get you a copy once it has been published.

Thank you to all of you who participated in our research. 

Larry Krengel and Wendy Schweigert 

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