Beekeepers examine a frame from a box beehive. Students in the Southeastern Michigan Beekeepers Association basic beekeeping class will compare hives with each other to see how their bees are doing in relation to the rest of the class.
By: Dean Vaglia | C&G Newspapers | Published October 1, 2025
METRO DETROIT — Despite how it may look in videos and pictures, beekeeping is no simple task.
What appears at first to be pulling racks out of boxes while wearing bulky clothes belies a complex field of animal husbandry where climates are watched, pesticides are precautioned and the wrong move may see a whole hive die off.
“There’s a fad that’s been going on (called) ‘garden hives,’” said Randy List, an instructor of classes with the Southeastern Michigan Beekeepers Association. “They put the box with hive stands in their garden and put some bees in there, and they do nothing to them and bees die and next year they put more in there. That’s not what proper beekeeping is. (Beekeeping is) husbandry; you have to monitor what’s going on and deal with what’s going on. The weather and climate is a big deal … so you have to be aware of what to expect, understand what you’re seeing and deal with it.”
For those who find themselves interested in beekeeping and want to learn how to get into it, List recommends first reaching out to local beekeeping clubs and speaking with active keepers. If what they have to say sounds good, interested parties are encouraged to take a course like SEMBA’s basic beekeeping classes. Running from February to October with monthly classes at Michigan State University’s Tollgate Farm and Education Center in Novi and the Bowers School Farm in Bloomfield Hills, the SEMBA basic beekeeping course teaches students how to get into responsible beekeeping.
“It starts out as bookwork and classroom work … and then the students get bees,” List said. “The students all have bees and they learn from each other’s bees, because they’ll have a hive right next to each other and they’ll be doing something totally different. The whole point of that is I look at your hive, you look at my hive and everybody else’s hive as a group and we learn what’s going on. (Around fall) they take the hives back to wherever they’re going to take care of them and then (October) is a wrap-up meeting.”
Students work with beekeeper instructors, like List or fellow instructor Luke Altomore, to learn information important for the first year of maintaining a honeybee hive. Subjects taught include the biology of the honeybee, how bees operate alongside other pollinators, how to maintain hives, how to maintain the health of honeybees, learning about different types of pests, mites and other threats, the tools of beekeeping and more.
It costs around $500 to take the class, including the textbook and a box hive. Taking the SEMBA course gives students a preliminary set of information to begin beekeeping while also building relationships with emerging and experienced beekeepers in the area.
“My team’s support to the students doesn’t end in October,” List said. “They’ve got our numbers and our emails and that continues on. In fact, I still get calls from people from several years back. We also have a Facebook page for alumni, and some people participate in it and others don’t, just asking questions and what’s what. When it comes to extracting the honey, that’s another expense so a lot of people will get together and chip in instead of paying $300 for just (their own) equipment and sharing it. You’re gaining friends and you’re gaining contacts.”
On top of the $500 class and possibly some share of the burden for extraction equipment, beekeeping is a fairly significant investment up front. Altomore says the cost can be $1,000 or more when including protective equipment, hives and honeybees, but there’s also plenty of money to be made once the hives start producing honey.
“The interesting thing I found out was, after a couple years of beekeeping, I was making enough money selling my honey to pay for all of my equipment — and had some left over, too,” Altomore said. “There’s that to keep in mind, that if you do keep up with the hobby, you’ll have enough honey sales to pay for everything that you need to start with.”
Altomore says honey runs for about $15 per pound and $1 per ounce with bottling and labels being a minimal monetary expense.
Along with the honey and whatever joys and profits come from that, beekeeping is more than just the practice of raising bees and managing their hives. Both List and Altomore waxed poetic about the scent of a hive, as well as the relaxing feeling of simply being with and watching the bees.
“When you find apiaries, which is a bee yard, you will usually find a folding chair or a stool or a bench for people to go out and sit,” List said. “We work with the city of Livonia parks and rec; we have an apiary there and whenever we’re there, there’s always somebody walking by and waiting to come in and sit and watch and listen.
“When we have lectures and observation hives, with the bees behind glass, it’s fun watching the kids but it’s also fun watching the adults watching the bees, getting mesmerized just by looking at it. It is mesmerizing if you let it happen to you,” List added.
While some may try to get into beekeeping as a way of “saving the bees,” SEMBA’s website discourages this and recommend those interested in that to “plant and encourage pollinator friendly farms and gardens, to join the movement to eradicate lethal pesticides, or to participate in citizen science projects that support endangered pollinators.” But for those with a passion and drive for the work, science and art of bee husbandry, Altomore has a dire warning for anyone following the road to beekeeping.
“Beekeeping is addictive,” Altomore said. “You think you’re going to have one or two hives, and before you know it your bees are multiplying, you’re splitting your hives, and very quickly you can have up to 10 or 12 hives.”
To learn more, go to sembabees.org.