Hive Mind

Behind the Scenes of Beekeeping with Calm and Confidence.

By Becca Bona |Photography By Sara Reeves

As humanity continually seeks to reconnect with the rhythms of nature, one practice stands out: beekeeping, where the symbiotic relationship between civilization and the outdoor world is vividly alive.

“Our lifestyle is dictated by what the bees are doing,” Arkansas native Lauren Anderson, founder and apiary manager of Central Arkansas-based beekeeping venture Calm and Confidence, noted. “So much of what the bees are doing are the results of signals they’re getting from nature.”

Beekeeping 101: Calm and Confidence Born out of a classroom in Washington state, Anderson formalized the business when she moved back to Arkansas a little over five years ago. A beehive subscription service bolstered by educational outreach, Calm and Confidence continues to grow and reach new corners of the state.

“It started as a high school program,” Anderson recounted. “And then, during COVID, I came to a crossroads moment. I got hired for a teaching position, and I thought to myself, ‘Do I still try to juggle both? Or do I just go all in?’”

Anderson chose the latter, diving in headfirst and moving from Washington back to Arkansas. “My degree is in teaching science to people of other cultures,” she explained. “I feel like my background is built for this business because we deal with people from all different backgrounds.”

Part education and part service, Calm and Confidence relies on honey and honeybees but doesn’t stop there. “Everybody loves honey. The universality brings people together,” Anderson said. “But we think of honey as an added bonus.” As a zero-waste venture, Calm and Confidence also focuses on bringing conservation and entrepreneurship to the forefront.

“Whenever you do something like harvest honey, it produces wax as a waste product. We’re going find a way to use that,” Anderson said. From honey, to beeswax soap and lip balm, to furniture made from retired hive boxes, the Calm and Confidence team works to repurpose and reuse. Often, items are available to the public for purchase, as well.

Whether you want to become a location partner, get involved in processing honey, or even just learn about honey bees and their habitat and ecosystem, there is a place for you at Calm and Confidence. “Our goal is to meet everybody where they’re at,” Anderson said. “We have a lot of apprentices that sometimes want to just come one time to check beekeeping off their bucket list, but we do have people who will formally go through the entire program with us.”

While working with Calm and Confidence, hive location partners will eventually have all the tools and skills to tend their honey bee ecosystem. Monitoring a hive is very important, as the bees are big foragers and cover a lot of ground.

“Honey bees are not native to this area,” Anderson said. “We can’t let them go wild; that would not be beneficial for the ecosystem.” To ensure that the many native pollinators have their own food source, Calm and Confidence monitors its over-100 hives operating across the state. Employees often respond to swarm calls in the spring, allowing them to rehome a hive to a potential location partner.

Sometimes, however, they can’t make that happen. “We also get calls where people buy a house, and somebody just abandoned or left their hives there,” Anderson explained. “If a hive swarms, but nobody catches it, it’ll end up in somebody’s walls. And it can cost over $1,000 to get them removed.” CC is currently exploring working with the state to try to formalize a process by which the team can help remove or relocate bee hives that end up in houses, abandoned or otherwise.

Join the Swarm: Community Connections
Calm and Confidence has experienced rapid growth over the past two years as it works to expand educational outreach. Each team member contributes their unique passion and drive to Calm and Confidence’s mission.

Ashlynn Bowman, beekeeper and pollinator educator, believes in Calm and Confdience’s role in the bigger picture: conservation of our environment. “What I see happening is us connecting with more beekeepers and spreading education,” she said. “By doing this, we can create a more ethical way of beekeeping, rather than the standard things we’ve seen commercialized.” Bowman particularly loves teaching about bee hotels and other ways to ensure native pollinators and honey bees can find adequate food sources.

Community coordinator Anna Crossland sees Calm and Confidence as a way to foster a connection to nature for adults and children alike. “We’re trying to bring that connection to the land back,” Crossland explained. “Some kids are initially intimidated because they’ve heard about getting stung. There’s this myth that honey bees are aggressive, and once you break it, even the adults are interested in learning more.”

Over the next few months, Calm and Confidence hopes to roll out an app to reach more people interested in learning more about beekeeping. They’re also working to capture knowledge from the experts. “We’re trying to be mindful that most of the beekeeping knowledge is in the 60-to-80-year-old block,” Anderson said.

Throughout the year, Calm and Confidence engages with and invites the public to join hive build days, honey harvest and processing days and other activities to learn more about beekeeping. During honey harvests, honey is available for purchase, as well. Throughout the process, the team works to interact with as many different communities as possible.

“Learning what bees do and how they impact the world we live in is so fascinating,” said Katie Finley, events coordinator and pollinator educator. “That we get to bring this to the community through schools and farmers markets and various other avenues is what the world needs right now. It is something that is important and can bring so many together.” 

Learn more about beekeeping, apprenticeships and becoming a hive partner with Calm and Confidence by visiting its website: calmandconfidence.com.