Meet Hilary Kearney

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Hilary Kearney. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Hilary below.

Hilary , we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

I picked up a beekeeping book by chance and became fascinated with honey bees. The way they organize the hive, with different jobs for every bee, their intelligence and even the way they make honey amazed me. I had no idea how complex they were. I never intended to become a beekeeper, but I followed that fascination. I wanted to know more and finally I decided I just needed to get some bees and learn about them directly instead of reading books and watching YouTube videos. From there, my interest grew into a business and now I have been doing this full time since 2014, earned my Cornell Master Beekeeper certificate and have 3 published books on the subject.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I really love teaching people about bees in a variety of ways. I do beekeeping classes and mentoring for those who want their own hives, but I also offer public tours for anyone who wants to suit up and learn about bees up close. My latest book, Heart of the Hive is also a great way for anyone to learn more about bees. It’s not a how-to beekeeping book. It’s just nature writing about one of this planet’s more interesting and important creatures: the honey bee!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I actually have a degree in Fine Art from UC Santa Cruz and while I don’t use that degree directly I think my creativity and artistic abilities have really helped me in my business. I design all my own graphics and I have created teaching posters, games, guides and more for other beekeepers and even school teachers to use in their lessons. Aside from my creativity, I also think my flexibility and my diverse interests has helped a lot. I have a very diversified business with many different revenue streams and I can easily pivot and adjust as markets change. I am constantly tweaking my services and offerings to be the best they can be for what people need.

My advice is to identify what you are best at and lean into it. If there’s something you are not good at that needs to happen, outsource! Hire someone to do that part for you so you can focus on what your strengths.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I am looking to collaborate with landowners who want to help me rescue bees. One of the things I do is live removals of honey bees that are in unwanted places, like people’s compost bins! However, once I rescue them, I need a place to bring them. I have a place in Jamul at the moment, but the landowner is moving so I need to find a new spot. I am looking for someone who has flat, accessible land with adequate distance from the property lines, who wants to provide a home to 10-20 bee colonies.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

taken by me

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