A Burgeoning Business with Bees: Carin Zinter (C’11) Applies Positivity Psychology to Beekeeping
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When I think about the “B’s” in positive psychology, I immediately think of the A – B – C’s of resilience, Barb Fredrickson and Biswas-Diener, and the unfortunate grade on my last theory paper. I recently learned that there is a new and exciting “B” buzzing around positive psychology these days: the honey bee!
In 2002, Carin Zinter, MAPP and her partner bought a house with 20 acres of land which naturally begged the question, “what should we do with our space?” Having grown up on a dairy farm in rural Minnesota, she knew that she did not want to own livestock. Her partner threw out the idea of beekeeping, and that sounded just interesting enough that they decided to give it a shot. They didn’t know anything about beekeeping at the time, so they went to a local beekeeping house to get a crash course on how to keep bees, buy their equipment, and set up their first hive.
Adam Grant suggests that the age old advice of “follow your passion” is misguided because passion is something you develop, not discover. This proved to be true for Carin, and her one hive quickly turned into 20 and crossed state lines into Vermont and New York. She became highly skilled in her craft of sustainable beekeeping and started to sell really good honey; honey that has gone on to win a national food award - twice. In addition to managing her own hives, Carin started working with private clients to help manage bees on their properties. Some of her clients are most interested in hive products like beeswax candles, soaps, and lip balms, while others are interested in honey production and use honey to make certain kinds of foods, create specialty cocktails, and work with restaurants and pastry chefs to create honey-themed meals. Carin describes beekeeping as the hobby that keeps on giving – it never gets boring!
Somewhere between her first and twentieth hive, Carin became fascinated with the science of bees and studied to become a Master Beekeeper. You might be asking what it takes to become a Master Beekeeper. The answer, it turns out, is a lot of grit, resilience, and harmonious passion. To become a Master Beekeeper, she completed a 4-part exam over the span of two days that included a four hour written exam, an oral exam where she presented in front of a panel, another written exam in a biology lab, and an observational exam in the apiary to demonstrate her beekeeping skills while answering questions posed by experts. Having successfully passed her exams, Carin devotes much of her time now to teaching other people how to keep bees.
Most people don’t know that you can keep a hive of bees in really small spaces including rooftops, balconies, and community gardens;in fact, it’s much easier to keep bees in a city than you might think. Carin teaches urban beekeeping classes in New York City and works with the Honey Bee Conservancy and the Queens Zoo, which is the only public zoo in the country that has beehives open to the public. Her classes in New York City span an entire season (March through November) so her students can practice following the needs of the bees in the apiary with an applied, hands-on approach along with their classroom instruction. At the end of the year, an overwhelming majority of her students choose to get their own bees. And for the few that don’t, many volunteer to manage bees from the Honey Bee Conservancy.
Carin also teaches a beekeeping class to alternative high school students in a program connected to her community college. She teaches two groups of students a year, many of whom come into class believing they don’t like science. Over the course of the semester, the students have fun, learn how to build bee hives, look at dead bees under microscopes to learn the anatomy, and there are usually 1 or 2 students who want to keep bees at the end of the year. Some of her students have even moved into agriculture-related careers.
With a growing interest in urban beekeeping, you might be wondering what some of the well-being effects of keeping bees might be. Carin describes that beekeeping can be a profoundly transcendent experience for people; an experience that really becomes a contemplative practice. To fully appreciate it, you have to be in the moment and singularly focused on what you’re doing (otherwise you risk getting stung). When you start working with bees, you develop such a reverence for honey bees as incredible social insects that work together in a way that you don’t see in many other species. You’re immersed in a colony that has 50,000 bees in it while being mindful to care for the bees and not disrupt them. This can really put you into a flow-like state.
My conversation with Carin opened my eyes to the many ways the honey bee can contribute to our well-being. Beekeeping can help us tap into all of the pillars of PERMA and cultivate a deeper appreciation of the interconnectedness of the natural world. On a personal note, I’ve been thinking about practicing the skills of savoring with some of Carin’s award winning honey. That might just be the sweetest positive intervention yet.
If you’d like to learn more about urban beekeeping and Carin’s work, watch her video here.
