WHO KEEPS THE BEES?

A Portrait of the American Beekeeper

Who they are, Why they do it, and What keeps them going

By Mirza Tihic | Syracuse University

You want to understand a beekeeper? Don’t start with the honey. Don’t start with the hives. Start with this: most of them are losing money, most of them knew they would, and almost none of them are quitting.

We surveyed 439 active beekeepers across the United States. Not hobbyists at a county fair. Not big commercial operators with hundreds of hives. All of them, the backyard keeper with three hives in rural Ohio, the suburban beekeeper in Phoenix, the sideline operator in Vermont who sells at the farmers market on weekends. We asked them who they are, why they do it, and whether any of it is worth it.
Here is what they told us.

PART 1 — WHO THEY ARE
The American beekeeper is probably not who you picture.

She – and 40% of them are women, which surprises a lot of people – is nearly 60 years old, lives in a rural area, and has been keeping bees for about ten years. She didn’t inherit the hives from her father. She didn’t study agriculture. She saw a documentary, or read a book, or just got curious about what was happening in her backyard, and she started. Two thirds of all the beekeepers we surveyed said the same thing: personal interest in nature brought them here.

Most of them are hobbyists. Six in ten run fewer than ten hives. Another one in four are sideline keepers – supplementing their income, not replacing it. Only about one in eight would call themselves commercial in any real sense.

And that income? The median beekeeper earns 2% of their household income from beekeeping. Not 20%. Not 12%. Two percent. Eight in ten earn 10% or less. This is not a livelihood for most of them. It is something else entirely – and we will get to that.

PART 2 — WHY THEY DO IT
This is the part that should make economists uncomfortable.

We measured motivation using a research tool that breaks down why people put effort into their work. It separates the things that come from inside – love of the craft, personal values, genuine enjoyment – from the things that come from outside – money, recognition, fear of failing in front of others.

The results were not close. Beekeepers score nearly 6 out of 7 on intrinsic motivation, i.e., love of the craft and alignment with personal values. They score 3 out of 7 on controlled motivation, i.e., money, recognition, and external pressure. That gap, nearly two full points on a seven-point scale, is one of the largest differences of its kind ever measured in research on why people work.

In plain language: beekeepers are not doing this for the money, and they are not doing it because someone is watching. They are doing it because they love it, because it means something to them, and because the bees need them.

PART3 — THE NUMBER THAT
SAYS EVERYTHING
Here is the most honest number in this whole article.

We asked beekeepers: would you recommend beekeeping to others as a business or livelihood?

Only 35% said yes.

More than a third said probably not or definitely not. Nearly a quarter were unsure. These are people who love what they do – and they are still telling you: don’t count on this to pay your bills.

PART 4 — WHAT THEY GIVE
AWAY FOR FREE
So why do they stay? And why, if it barely pays, do they keep pulling others in?

Because here is the other number: 82% of American beekeepers taught or mentored at least one other person in the last twelve months. The median beekeeper taught two people last year. Roughly one in five taught more than eleven.

They are not building a business. They are building a community. They are keeping something alive – knowledge, craft, a relationship with the natural world – that the market has never been able to price correctly. Every lesson they give away for free is a small act of stubbornness against a world that only counts what it can sell.

That is not a hobby. That is a calling.

THE BOTTOM LINE
The American beekeeper is a middle-aged person who started because they cared about nature, taught themselves mostly from books and the internet, runs a small operation that earns almost nothing, wouldn’t necessarily tell you to follow their path – and cannot imagine stopping.

They are not in it for the money. They never were. They are in it because the bees matter, the craft matters, and someone has to do it.

That is who keeps the bees.

Mirza Tihić is a Teaching Professor of Management at Syracuse University, where he studies entrepreneurship – specifically the kind that doesn’t fit neatly into a spreadsheet. He designed and led the survey behind this article and is currently completing a larger study of beekeepers across 12 countries. He is also a hobby beekeeper himself, which means he already knew the answer before the data came in – he just needed 439 strangers to confirm it.

Data from a survey of 439 US beekeepers conducted in 2024–2025 by researchers at Syracuse University (IRB Protocol 25-363). Motivation findings are drawn from a larger cross-national study of 743 beekeepers currently under academic review. Sample sizes (n) shown in each table reflect the number of respondents who answered that particular question – not all respondents answered every question.