Ross Conrad
Ross Conrad
Beekeeping is a quirky profession, full of characters and interesting people. The beekeeping community is also relatively small and that may be part of the reason that it seems to nurture a culture of camaraderie that transcends differences such as religion, race, ethnicity, sex, political affiliation, and economic and social status. This got me thinking about celebrities, world leaders and historical figures who are, or were, beekeepers. Some famous people from Popes to Presidents, never actually kept bees themselves, but had hired hands keep them for them. Others promoted bees such as Mohammed Ali, the former world heavy-weight boxing champion who ate lots of pollen and honey and attributed this as part of the reason he could “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.” Nevertheless, there are many well-known people have actually gotten their hands inside a beehive and have been deeply involved in beekeeping. Here is a sampling:
Aristotle – (384-322 BC) The Greek philosopher and scientist kept and studied honey bees in simple hives that utilized strips of wood as top bars. A founder of clever scientific deduction, many of his bee observations were sound, others not so much, and many of these wrong explanations got passed down to later generations, until they acquired the status of authority. Such observations included the idea that bees find their young in flowers; that what we know today as the queen bee was actually a “king”; that worker bees that stung were males, and that honey is distilled from dew or falls magically from the air. Aristotle also thought that bees lived for seven years. If only our colonies would live for that long today…
Jon Bon Jovi – (1962- Present) This rock-n-roller who once dated Cher is a beekeeper, but some theorize that it’s not just because he loves bees. Apparently there were certain tax exemptions and deductions for land uses that produces agricultural revenue in his home state of New Jersey that Bon Jovi reportedly wanted to take advantage of.
Christie Brinkley – (1954 – Present) According to the pictures she has posted on social media, famed super model Christie Brinkley is able to make a bee suit and veil look stylishly fashionable when she checks on her bees in her backyard in Bridgehampton, New York.
Leonardo DiCaprio – (1974 – Present) Introduced to beekeeping by his mother’s boyfriend, it is reported that DiCaprio took up beekeeping to reduce stress when he was nominated for an Academy Award for The Revenant in 2016. He not only builds his own hives for the colonies he keeps in his garden in Los Angeles but he won the Oscar!
Henry Fonda – (1905-1982) The star of 96 films, this hobby beekeeper gave away his Hollywood honey in jars labeled “Henry’s Honey”. He kept his bees on his Bel Air estate, where they pollinated lemon and orange trees. Fonda started his beekeeping journey while he was a youngster growing up in Nebraska, when he earned the Eagle Scout’s merit badge for beekeeping.
Peter Fonda – (1940-2019) Undoubtedly influenced by his father, Henry Fonda, Peter was named Beekeeper of the year by the Florida State Beekeeping Association for his portrayal of the lead beekeeper role in the 1997 movie Ulee’s Gold, and for his contributions to beekeeping.
Morgan Freeman – (1937- Present) Morgan Freeman turned his 126-acre ranch in Mississippi to a bee haven for the colonies in his care. He finds beekeeping meditative and reports not wearing a bee suit or using any other protection while beekeeping because he wants to “resonate” and “become one” with the bees.
Flea – (1962- Present) Flea, whose real name is Micheal Peter Balzary, is the Australian-American bass player for the The Red Hot Chili Peppers’s and he documented his love of bees on Instagram. This backyard beekeeper with a few colonies has affectionately termed his hives “Flea’s bees”.
Jennifer Garner – (1972-Present) After her daughter became interested in bees, Jennifer Garner got bees to accompany her chickens. Ms Garner is known to share her honey bee experiences on Instagram.
Sir Edmund Hillary – (1919-2008) On 29 May 1953, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his guide, Tenzing Norgay, are considered to be the first people to stand on the summit of Mount Everest. But it is said that the only reason Hillary was on the expedition at all was because of his interest in beekeeping. Before the second world war, in which he served as a navigator in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, Hillary and his brother, Rex, joined their father’s beekeeping business. This seasonal occupation enabled Hillary to fund his real passion of mountain climbing. Following his ascent of Everest, Sir Edmond was sure the attention around his climb would blow over, so he went back to beekeeping in 1954. Together, Hillary and his brother are reported to have eventually built up their operation to over 1,200 colonies.
Scarlett Johansson – (1984- Present) This Hollywood actress took up beekeeping when fellow Avengers star, Samuel L. Jackson gave her a beehive as a wedding gift for her and Ryan Reynolds. Contrary to rumor, he did not bring it to the wedding, but showed up a few days later with bees in his car. Jackson said, “Scarlett was always talking about how the bees were dying and the planet was going to die.” Johansson now includes her own honey in her organic beauty regimen.
Angelina Jolie – (1975 – Present) The “godmother” of Women For Bees, in 2021 Angelina Jolie helped launch this five-year program sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the French cosmetic company Guerlain. Women For Bees trains women around the globe in their countries native beekeeping skills. Jolie joined the first 10 women in the program in getting trained as a beekeeper by experts at the French Observatory of Apidology, in Provence.
Robert Redford – (1936 – Present) One of Hollywood’s most iconic leading men, Robert Redford keeps bees on his 10 acre property in the town of St. Helena, located in California’s Napa Valley wine region. Although grapes do not need bees to become pollinated, the cover crops and surrounding plants in the Napa Valley benefit from Redford’s colonies.
Martha Stewart – (1941 – Present) The busy American Style advocate has been a model, a stockbroker, cookbook author, publisher, media icon, and a beekeeper. When asked, she’s stated that she’s probably a gardener first and beekeeper second. It was her desire to have great gardens that lead her to become interested in backyard beekeeping. She’s written and produced a lot of stuff on beekeeping.
Bruce Springstein – (1949 – Present) the Boss has kept bees for many years on an organic farm he maintains in his home state of New Jersey. We’re still waiting for our winged friends to make it into one of his songs.
Sting – (1951 – Present) Born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, the English musician, singer, songwriter and actor was known for wearing black and yellow sweaters in college which led to him becoming known as Sting. A supporter of the beekeeping charity, Bees for Development, he and his wife Trudie Styler, keep bees on a 400 year old Villa “Il Palagio” in Italy.
Leo Tolstoy – (1828-1910) Although he received numerous nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature and for the Nobel Peace Prize , the widely celebrated author, Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Leo Tolstoy), is best known for his novel War and Peace. Tolstoy also got stung with the beekeeping bug and according to his wife Sonya’s diary, beekeeping became “the centre of the world” and he was happy to talk bees with anyone who would listen. (Remind you of anyone you know?) He took advantage of his beekeeping experience by mentioning beekeeping twice in War and Peace. His wife wrote of him crouching in front of the hives with a net over his head to protect him from being stung.
Maria von Trapp – (1905-1987) From the mid-1940’s to mid-1950’s, shortly after her family left German-annexed Austria on the eve of the second world war in 1939, the real-life nun and governess from The Sound of Music was encouraged by her husband Georg to keep bees on the farm they had settled on the mountains overlooking the town of Stowe, Vermont. The farm which also served as a music camp when the family was not on tour, later became The Trapp Family Lodge. According to Johannes von Trapp, some of the honey they produced went to the family and the rest to guests at the Lodge. In 2018, employees at the Lodge bought several hives, and the Stowe hills were alive once again with the sound of buzzing bees.
Viktor Yushchenko – (1954- Present) The former President of Ukraine was nicknamed, “Pasechnik” or “beekeeper” in Russian. Enjoying beekeeping since his childhood days, Yushchenko is now retired and lives on his country estate with his beehives.
Steve Vai – (1960-Present) This three-time Grammy Award winning guitarist, singer, song-writer and composer played in Frank Zappa’s band. These days he donates some of the honey he harvests from his bees to charity. Vai is also an honorary member of the British Beekeeping Association.
