University of Louisville’s beekeeping intern practices Kentucky urban agriculture

U of L student Shelby Robinson carries tradition from Meade County to Louisville

The Lane Reort
April 22, 2024

Excerpt:

University of Louisville anthropology student Shelby Robinson has made her impact on campus through a unique practice – beekeeping. Robinson is UofL’s dedicated beekeeping intern and cares for the university’s beehives managed through UofL Sustainability.

Honeybees have always been a part of Robinson’s life as she first learned about beekeeping from family members who’ve cared for beehives through generations, starting with her grandfather, and then her father. Beehives bring nostalgic scents and sounds to Robinson, whose earliest memories include following her grandfather around their family hives in Meade County, Ky., harvesting honey for their “Bee Happy Farms” honey jars.

“My grandfather had this big garden and orchard with apple trees, so he had the bees to pollinate them,” Robinson said. “I just remember playing around the garden and being close to the bees. They weren’t ever interested in me because I wasn’t bothering them, so that fear kind of got eliminated when I was pretty young.”

After the death of Robinson’s grandfather, her family kept a hive on his property to support the orchard. She and her father now tend to the inherited bees. “It’s crazy that it’s a family tradition that can carry on, beyond someone like that,” Robinson reflected.

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