Johnston Community College spreads the joy of beekeeping through course

By RANDY CAPPS

SMITHFIELD — Patience and a willingness to take advice are two keys to learning anything new. According to Chris Hagwood, the instructor for the beekeeping course offered at Johnston Community College this spring, the same applies to tending to honeybees.

“It’s not an easy task to keep a honeybee colony alive,” he said. “A lot of people get started into backyard beekeeping to ‘save the bees,’ but without taking the time to learn how to manage them successfully. It leads to a lot of frustration. Something like 80 percent of (new beekeepers) quit in the first two years.

“When people want to get started in beekeeping, that’s why it’s so important to take a course like the one offered at JCC.”

is a Garner native who retired from his full-time position as a captain with the Garner Police Department in 2017, but his interest in beekeeping goes back much further.

“I became interested in it when I was 13 or 14, and it was just fascinating to learn about bees and beekeeping,” he said. “I would say the key to me getting started (as an adult) was Bailey Bee Supply having a shop open on South Saunders Street (in Raleigh). So, I just stopped in and they were going to have classes starting the following spring. So, I signed up for the classes in 2015 and started ordering supplies.

“From the moment I took the class and got the bees, it was so fascinating. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and learning about it. And it really continues today.”

The learning doesn’t stop for Hagwood, and it’s a notion he passes on to his students.

“The class helps you have a better understanding of the honeybee colony,” he said. “The honeybee colony has to succeed, not just the individual bees. So, you come away (from the class) with a better understanding of the history of beekeeping, what we’ve learned and the current science of what we know today.”

Education in the class setting is important, but picking the brains of your fellow beekeepers is important as well, Hagwood believes.

“When you tackle it alone without the knowledge of your fellow beekeepers, it also contributes to your frustration,” he said. “The course is great as a foundation, but there are also county-level beekeeping clubs that also help the new beekeeper to learn. There’s a Johnston County Beekeepers Association (www.jocobee. org) that holds meetings, so we encourage students to join that club or one like it that’s closer to them.”

With the proper foundation, patience and an eagerness to learn, beekeeping can become a lifelong pastime.

“It’s doing 100 percent of something I enjoy,” he said, when asked to compare beekeeping to his former profession. “The police world, there’s a lot of things you do that are stressful and tragic. In beekeeping, watching people light up at the information and the miraculous stuff that goes on inside a colony is incredible.”

To learn more about the program, visit www.johnstoncc. edu/continuing-education/ beekeeping.aspx.