For both Ingrid Perdikis and Kobie Pretorius, a love of animals runs deep, but it was backyard chickens that drew them both to beekeeping. When Kobie began keeping chickens, she forwent insecticides and herbicides in her garden to ensure that chemicals did not end up in the eggs laid by her hens. That led her to the belief that the chemical-free environment would be ideal for bees as well. For Ingrid, after she and her husband purchased a farm in Hartsville, beekeeping seemed like an ideal solution for something low-maintenance and easy to “farm.” She later learned it was a stickier business than she’d first thought.

Sharing the experience as friends has been rewarding for Ingrid and Kobie. They also find joy in sharing the activity with their families: Their husbands join in the fun, and their kids join them when they can as well. Ingrid’s effervescent attitude is apparent in all facets of her life, including how she raises her animals — everything has a name. When choosing names for her chickens, she opted for a floral theme: Dandelion, Parsley, Sage, Lavender, Tiger Lily and Daffodil. It stood to reason that her queen bees should have a similar treatment. The queens of Ingrid’s hives are: Alexander McQueen, Freddy Mercury, Steve McQueen and Lightning McQueen.

As most beekeepers will tell you, beekeeping is a complex hobby — more an art than a science. They will also tell you their experiences of loss and heartbreak. As bee populations decline as much as 30 percent nationwide every year, beekeepers can lose entire colonies to factors such as habitat loss, pesticides, poor nutrition, climate change and — in Kobie’s case — weather. In March 2020, when a tornado tore through the area destroying homes and lives, Kobie’s hives took a direct hit. She found one of her supers — one of the beehive boxes where honey is stored — in the woods about 30 yards from where it was originally set up. The rest of the hives were completely destroyed. She found the remains shredded over the River Campus of University School of Nashville where the hives had been set up. All that remained was a mud-covered sign which read, “Honeybees Hard at Work. Do Not Disturb.” 

With all loss comes learning. Kobie reflects on some of the best advice she has received as a beekeeper: “Don’t give up. They’re fragile. Bad things will happen, but try again. The reward is great.”