From the founders
Memorial Day just passed, and we wanted to spend this issue on something we've been reading about for a while: what happens when veterans start keeping bees.
It turns out this isn't a new idea. In April 1919, as soldiers came home from the First World War, the United States Federal Board for Vocational Education published a small guide recommending beekeeping as a vocation for disabled veterans. Low bar to entry, a few hives could make a real income, and a way back to work outdoors.
That federal program went mostly nowhere. But over the next century the idea found its way into being anyway, in pieces, almost always built by veterans themselves. Today there are at least five major programs teaching American veterans to keep bees. Most are free. One has produced the first peer-reviewed study of beekeeping as a clinical intervention for veterans.
We’re honored to share their stories with you,
— The Primal Bee Team
A 1919 federal recommendation, still standing today
Joshua Munoz doing a hive demo at Bee Vets
Adam Ingrao came home from the Army after a training injury cut his enlistment short, and into the opioid epidemic. He went back to school on the GI Bill, signed up for a beekeeping elective almost at random, and it changed his life.
"The time in the apiary was time where I wasn't thinking about my battle buddies that never came home," he told us. "I was being present."
Adam doing a demo of adaptable bee equipment
In 2014 he and his wife ran the first cohort of Heroes to Hives from their living room. Five veterans.
Today it's the largest agricultural training program for veterans in the country, with more than 20,000 served, and the full curriculum is now free online.
For a decade the therapeutic side was anecdotal. Then a 2024 study in the Therapeutic Recreation Journal put numbers to it: nine veterans, fifteen sessions pairing hive work with mindfulness, and anxiety and depression scores that improved by roughly 31% session over session. "We saw this massive reduction in something that people are taking pills for," Ingrao said. "It was the first study of its kind."
Heroes to Hives is one of five. At the University of Minnesota, home to the first beekeeping courses any U.S. school ever offered, the Bee Veterans program pairs director Jessica Helgen with veteran instructors like Air Force vet Ben Ziegler. They teach gloveless, so you can actually feel the comb, and Ben says he knows someone has truly caught it when "they come and show us a bottle of honey with their brand new label on it."
There's also a 10,000-member mentor network spanning every state, a clinical VA program now replicated across the country, and a residential program in Oregon.
None of them claim beekeeping replaces therapy. As one of the recreational therapists put it: "If you are not mindful when you're in the beehive, you are going to find out. The bees are going to let you know."
🏛️ The USDA wants to close its top bee lab. Beekeepers are not having it.
⚰️ A New York cemetery turned out to be hiding 5.5 million bees. Yes, really.
🍯 "Fake honey" is now a federal court case.
🔥 Heatwaves are ruining bees' sex lives. Science's words, not ours.
🐝 A math teacher rescued 5,000 bees from a playground, then took them home.
We're highlighting the photos beekeepers in our community have been sending in from around the world this year.
Got a hive of your own? We want to see it! Drop a photo in the Primal Bee Facebook group or tag us. We're collecting them for a global gallery 🐝
Until next time
Memorial Day is for the people we lost. The rest of the year is for the ones who made it back and are still finding their way home. If this issue reaches one veteran who needs it, forward it their way. That's the whole point of sending it.
And if you came up through one of these programs, or know one we should feature next, hit reply. The best stories we tell start as replies from this list.
Happy beekeeping,
The Primal Bee Team 🐝