From the founders
We don't usually stray far from thermodynamics and colony health in this newsletter.
But this month we came across research that stopped us: the first peer-reviewed study documenting beekeeping as mental health therapy. Veterans with PTSD showing statistically significant reductions in anxiety and depression. Prison programs where incarcerated women pass master beekeeper exams. Youth in foster care learning to regulate their nervous systems by standing in front of 60,000 stinging insects.
We talked to Julia Mahood, who has spent nine years teaching beekeeping in Georgia prisons. Her stories reminded us why we got into this in the first place - the magic that occurs when humans and bees work together.
— The Primal Bee Team
The therapeutic hive
Julia Mahood drives north on I-985 every Tuesday morning, toward Alto, Georgia. At check-in, she surrenders her phone and driver's license. Steel doors bolt shut behind her.
She's been teaching beekeeping at Lee Arrendale State Prison, the largest women's facility in Georgia, for nine years.
"One of the ladies told me that prison is boring," Julia says. "That's why they get jobs. But it's all menial labor. She said beekeeping was the first and only opportunity she'd had to engage her brain."
The Georgia Prison Beekeeping Program now operates in eight facilities across the state. More than 200 incarcerated people have earned beekeeping certifications. Some have achieved master beekeeper status behind bars, passing exams with an 80% fail rate on the outside.
Julia has watched women work together across racial lines, across factional divides, united by the shared task of keeping bees alive. At one facility she visited, inmates were using toilet paper tubes as smoker fuel and walking to the welding shed to light propane because they had no proper equipment. They made it work.
"This has been the most rewarding thing I've done besides being a parent," Julia says.
🐝 From “run away” to suit up — beekeeping as a gateway to loving insects.
🧠 Bee brains are officially smarter than most GPS chips.
🌺🐦 Some flowers flirt with birds — and ghost bees entirely.
Customer story: Twenty years treatment-free in the Negev Desert 🐝 🐪
Vanya started beekeeping in Moldova, working alongside his father-in-law in greenhouse heat. When they moved to Be'er Sheva in Israel's Negev Desert, he thought that chapter was closed. Desert conditions. No bees.
Then his father-in-law came to him: "The one thing I miss is my bees."
Twenty years later, Vanya runs treatment-free colonies in one of the harshest climates imaginable. His secret? Bees that don't waste energy on thermal regulation.
"Even at temperatures around 40°C, the bees do not form a beard at the entrance, remain active whenever nectar is available, and hardly collect water for cooling."
When Primal Bee co-founder Gianmario came to Israel to test the hive design under hot desert conditions, Vanya built the first prototype.
"Then it started. Then it became history."
📍 COME SEE US: Midwest Honey Bee Expo (Feb 6-7th)
We'll be at the Midwest Honey Bee Expo in Madison, Wisconsin on February 6-7th.
If you're in the area, stop by and say hi - we're offering 25% off all items during the show for onsite purchases!
Until next time
The bees don't care about your history. They don't care about your diagnosis, your sentence, your trauma, your rank. They care about whether you're present, whether you're calm, whether you're paying attention.
Maybe that's why they help.
Until next time,
The Primal Bee Team 🐝