By: Stephanie Bayerl
Please enjoy Kim Lehman singing her song “Honey Time”
Please enjoy Kim Lehman singing her song “Tiny Treasures”
Please enjoy Kim Lehman singing her song “Working Workers”
Click Here if you listened. We’d love to know what you think. There is even a spot for feedback! Read along below!
This year, I had the privilege of interviewing one of Bee Culture’s long-time contributors, Kim Lehman. She discussed not only her journey with Bee Culture Magazine, but the significance her roles as a designer, creator, storyteller and contributor has meant to her and how it has impacted her life through the years. Please enjoy as Kim shares her story.
Keeping Bees
Kim has always loved the outdoors, she’s a gardener, an herbalist and had a mentor that helped her get into beekeeping. She kept bees for 20 years and started a local beekeeping organization called The Honey Bee Stewards in Austin, TX.
Kim’s hobby of beekeeping allowed for her to expand her creativity and led to various paths where she could use her beekeeping skills.
Early on, she used the beeswax from her bees to make products for her educational programs. And as she continued to learn, grow and teach, her skillset evolved into event planning and becoming a professional storyteller. She thoroughly enjoys teaching educational programs about bees, and regards herself as a professional storyteller and musician at schools and libraries.
Kids Page
To make a short story long…Kim has always enjoyed learning and then sharing information. Years ago when she started the beekeeping group in Austin, Texas, the American Beekeeping Federation had their conference in 1995, and needless to say, she was one of the local organizers. She was new to the ABF so she really didn’t know what the expectations were for the conventions.
However, being an educator, she set out to send all the Honey Queen contestants into schools and set up an educational “Kids and Bees Program” at the convention site and invited the public to come and join. She continued this at the ABF conventions for over 17 years. And throughout that journey, her work got the attention of Kim Flottum, the editor of Bee Culture Magazine at the time. And seeing Kim’s creativity, he invited her to create the Kid’s Page for the magazine. This was something totally unique and allowed Kim to express her creativity in a new way.
Content Design
When Kim first started to design the Kid’s Page for Bee Culture, layout, design and the Adobe Suite were new to her. With help from her husband, she was quick to learn and master the skills necessary to create these pages. She loved the design aspect of using space, color, and lines in the page development.
As she learned, she grew in using these skills to design newsletters for many nonprofits and organizations throughout the years. She even used these skills to take on the roles of vice president, president, newsletter editor, and coordinator for many organization’s events. She learned quickly that layout and design is a big puzzle, and each month she successfully figured out how to place and create engaging content for Bee Culture readers.
Bee-ing Creative
Each issue was centered around a topic. She began by brainstorming a list of ideas under each of these themes: beekeeping, bee biology, products of the hive, pollination, crafts, and activities. There would be a main article. Then she would come up with related activities, games, and information to make the page fun.
Most of the time she would think about the topic and come up with activities to compliment the theme. As we all know, the internet is a wealth of resources to draw from and if she was stuck, she might go to Pinterest or do a simple Google search to be garner some inspiration. One resource she used when developing games was Puzzlemaker. On this website, you can easily create crosswords, word finds, mazes, and other word puzzles https://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/, a lot of which she included.
She also wanted a mascot for the page, so she asked her friend Mark, who was a master punster, what she should name her. He responded without missing a beat. “Why Bee B. Queen of course!” She has been the mascot and on every issue ever since.
Honey Recipes
Kim even incorportated honey recipes into her pages from time to time. Her favorite recipes are the ones that kids had sent to be included in the magazine. Amelia Maclean from Missouri shared directions to make her honey butter. Aly Boles from California sent her recipe for delicious and healthy energy bites. Lily Barcak from Alaska shared her granola and her marshmallow recipes. She always chose recipes that were easy to make and appealing to kids.
Bee Buddy Club
Throughout the duration of her time with Bee Culture’s Kid’s Page, Kim had 1,585 kids from all 50 states and Canada sign up to be a Bee Buddy. What exactly is/was a bee buddy? Well, the Bee Buddy club started twenty years ago as an old timey club. She sent kids things in the mail like stickers, bookmarks, and other bee items. Believe it or not, it was real mail with an envelope and a stamp! Things have changed a bunch over the years, and Kim even thought about finding a way to continue the Bee Buddy Club in a digital way online, but never got around to it. Then again, it is much more fun to get a fun surprise sent rin the mail!
This Bee Buddy club gave kids the opportunity to send in artwork, recipes, jokes, poems, questions, and photos and more. Kim really enjoyed seeing how much fun the kids had with this and loved giving the kids a chance to be published in a professional beekeeping magazine.
Every once in a while, to make it extra special, she would highlight one of the Bee Buddies by writing an article about them for the page. She would conduct a phone interview with them which made each child feel seen and heard. Kim said, “Talking to these kids was not only delightful, but they often impressed me with their passion and ingenuity.” There were so many memorable interviews but there are two that stand out to her. One was with Mikaila Ulmer from Austin, Texas who at age thirteen started the business Me and The Bees Lemonade and the nonprofit Healthy Hive Foundation. The other was Maximus Keilty, 9 years old of Texas as well. They talked quite a while about his interest in bees and his other interests including his leadership roles, poetry and philosophy. Interviews and opportunities like these gave Kim joy and helped to assure her that our future is in good hands.
Beyond Grateful
Kim continues on to share some of her own words and what it this opportunity has meant to her.
“I could have never predicted the opportunities that arose out of writing the Kid’s Page. Not only has it been a blast, but a door was opened for me to write the book, Beekeeper’s Lab: 52 Family-Friendly Activities and Experiments Exploring the Life of the Hive. I did not see that coming.
Learning and honing the new skill of graphic design gave me the ability to work on many other publishing projects including writing and designing two other books including a family history cookbook and a companion activity book for a CD of children’s songs.
I have enjoyed the pleasant working environments over the years of both Kim Flottum and Jerry Hayes. I am grateful for their encouragement and friendship. My life is so much richer because of the experiences I’ve had writing the column.”
As Kim’s journey with Bee Culture comes to a close, here is the advice she would like to leave her readers: “Be curious. Love learning. Be generous with Your knowledge. Be bold. Go through the doors that Are open to you. Make your own doors. Life is good!” – Kim Lehman
Bee-ing Musically Gifted
Kim’s creativity of being a storyteller and musician even allowed her to write and sing songs that are bee inspired. They are known as “Piggyback” songs. These songs are created by taking a familiar tune and changing the words. Please enjoy some of Kim’s song lyrics and be sure to listen along to Kim performing them.
Honey Time
(Tune: Jingle Bells)
Thrashing through the yard,
In a one horse pick up truck.
To the hives we built,
I hope we don’t get stuck.
Robbing all our hives.
Honey for our friends.
What fun to see the bees that thrive,
On nectar and pollen.
Honey time, honey time,
Sweetness everyday,
Oh, what fun it is to eat.
It’s goodness I must say.
Honey time, honey time,
Sweetness everyday,
Oh, what fun it is to eat.
It’s goodness I must say.
Tiny Treasures
(Tune: Turkey in the Straw)
Oh, the honeybee is
Fabulous and great.
From flower to flower
They pollinate.
To make the food,
To make the seeds.
Our tiny treasures
The honey bees.
Working Workers
(Tune: I’ve Been Working
On the Railroad)
Workers working in the bee hive.
All these nice warm days.
Workers working in the bee hive.
In, oh, so many ways.
Building comb and feeding babies,
Fanning wings,
Cleaning out the hive.
Guarding, foraging and flying,
To help the hive survive.
Workers, won’t you buzz
Workers, won’t you buzz
Workers, won’t you buzz
Around, around
Workers, won’t you buzz
Workers, won’t you buzz
Workers, won’t you buzz around
Someone’s in the field
Finding flowers.
Someone’s in the field I know
Someone’s in the field
Finding flowers
Looking for a nectar flow
And singing
Flee, fly, flittery-i-o
Flee, fly, flittery-i-o
Flee, fly, flittery-i-o
Looking for a nectar flow.
