How One Entomologist Puts Beekeeping to Work to Support Her Community

Editor’s Note: This is the next article in the “Standout ECPs” series contributed by the Entomological Society of America’s Early Career Professionals (ECP) Committee, highlighting outstanding ECPs that are doing great work in the profession. (An ECP is defined as anyone within the first five years of obtaining their terminal degree in their field.) Read past articles in the Standout ECPs series.

Since 2021, Hollie Dalenberg has been the beekeeper and farm entomologist at BeeLoved Trading in Tulsa, Oklahoma. BeeLoved Trading is the social enterprise for the John 3:16 Mission, a nonprofit organization that has been providing meals and overnight shelter to those in need for the past 70 years.

The mission has a residential recovery program on a 150-acre property just northwest of downtown Tulsa on Osage Nation tribal lands. This location houses BeeLoved’s main apiary as well as 50-plus egg-laying chickens, 14 head of cattle, two donkeys, and a fully stocked fishing pond. Dalenberg manages 40 honey bee colonies spread out across five remote apiary locations around the metro area. As the farm entomologist, she advises on and assists with insect identification and IPM techniques on the farm.

In 2020, Dalenberg graduated from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus, with a master’s degree in entomology. Marla Spivak, Ph.D., was her graduate advisor in the Bee Lab, where she investigated the honey bee (Apis mellifera) mouthpart microbiome with and without propolis, an antimicrobial resin collected by honey bees mainly from the cottonwood tree (Populus deltoides) species.

In 2016, Dalenberg graduated from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, with a bachelor’s degree in cellular and molecular biology. She was born and raised in Tulsa and is a member of the Cherokee Nation. She moved back to Tulsa during the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing her passion for honey bee health and native pollinator advocacy with her.

Stewart: How did you get started on your entomology journey that ultimately led to you studying bees?

Dalenberg: At Fort Lewis College (FLC), I joined the organic chemistry lab of Dr. Bill Collins, who was synthesizing a compound used to treat Varroa destructor in honey bees. This lab had a research apiary that was managed jointly by Collins; the owner of Honeyville, a local honey company; and the FLC Bee Club. I did my first honey harvest with the club and fell in love with beekeeping.

When I graduated from FLC, I knew I wanted to use my technical laboratory skills to help the honey bees, so with the help of Dr. Collins I applied to all of the graduate programs that were doing bee research. I was so grateful that Dr. Spivak accepted me into her lab to study honey bee health.

I actually fell in love with insects when I was a child in elementary school and I found a monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) with deformed wings. I put her in a shoe box, fed her sugar water, and took her to school with me. I have always loved the small creepy crawlies, starting down at the microbiome level.

Hollie Dalenberg, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a light yellow dress, kneels in a lush garden. She is surrounded by various plants and flowers. A metal wire mesh arch structure covered in greenery forms the backdrop.

Hollie Dalenberg, in a yellow dress and sunhat, stands before tall greenery, holding a butterfly and revealing a tattoo on her upper arm.

What do you do at your job at BeeLoved Trading?

As a beekeeper, I do regular hive checks and maintenance. I was trained as a beekeeper in Minnesota, so I have had to learn how Oklahoma weather, floral availability, and local pests change my management strategies, which means I am always learning!

During the springtime, when bee season is at its busiest, I have weekly volunteer opportunities for people who are either wanting to get hands-on beekeeping experience to take back to their own hives or people who want to work with honey bees but don’t have the ability to keep their own. Luckily, the mission has numerous regular volunteers, so I get a lot of people interested in volunteering with me out in the field.

In addition to beekeeping, I have connected with the extension agents at Oklahoma State University and coordinate a monthly outreach class for the community to attend for free. Some of these classes have included backyard chicken management, cattle care, composting, jelly making, herb drying, pasture management, pond management, and whatever else they are able to teach. I am so grateful to have the expertise of local educators to provide knowledge and skills to people outside of the traditional college classroom setting.

A group of seven people, some wearing beekeeping suits and hats with veils, stand and kneel on grassy ground near a beehive. The background is a forested area. One person in front holds a beekeeping smoker while another holds a notepad.

A group of men are working on constructing wooden boxes at a table covered with newspapers. One man is using a drill, and there are bottles of wood glue on the table.

What are people often surprised to learn about bees?

Most people don’t know that honey bees aren’t native to North America. This gives me the opportunity to tell people about the numerous native bee species in Oklahoma specifically and North America in general.

Many people know about the bumble bee (Bombus spp.) but don’t know that they are critical to tomato plant pollination. A lot of people are surprised to learn that green sweat bees (Halictidae) are named so because they land on you to lap up sweat!

Through the BeeLoved Trading website, I write a monthly blog post, where I am constantly trying to introduce concepts related to honey bees, insects, flowers and landscape ecology that most people don’t know about.

What is the most rewarding part about your job?

The most rewarding part of my job is when I am able to interact with the people in the recovery program. I hear so many stories of people who had parents or grandparents who had honey bees, and I love that I am able to remind people of sweet childhood memories. Conversely, many people have traumatic stories about getting stung by hornets and wasps, but after teaching them about honey bees and how to interact with them safely they want to join me out in the field. Watching people overcome fears and building confidence in the face of trauma is inspiring.

I also find the ability to bring my kids beekeeping with me to be a very rewarding part of my job. They have both been working in the field with me since I was pregnant with each of them. They are really good at identifying insects and flowers, and it brings me hope that my love for the natural world is rubbing off on them. My kids know how to safely interact with bees, which makes me feel confident that I can teach anyone how to build a healthy relationship with stinging insects.

A child in a beekeeping outfit, including a netted hat, white shirt, pink pants, and pink boots, stands in front of three elevated white bee hives on concrete blocks. The surroundings feature a grassy area and a hedge in the background.

A young child wearing a white jacket, a hat with a black bee-keeping mesh, and patterned pants smiles while holding a tool. The child stands on a gravel surface with a stone wall and grill visible in the background, perhaps imagining an entomology career like Hollie Dalenberg.

What advice would you give to people interested in the field of entomology?

If you are interested in being an entomologist, then you are already in the cool club. Insects are fascinating, they are everywhere, and most people don’t know anything about them. People love to pick my brain about insects because they have so many questions and there are so few entomologists out there!

How did you become involved in ESA?

I was a member of ESA when I was in graduate school at the University of Minnesota. I attended an ESA conference in 2019 in St. Louis, Missouri. A colleague from grad school, Dr. Michelle Boone, nominated me for this career highlight.

Being an apiarist is a busy business. What keeps you motivated?

I have had amazing luck this year with catching swarms—13 and counting!

There is a huge opportunity in Tulsa to help honey bees, native bees, and homeowners all at the same time with the use of swarm trapping. I have been experimenting with different trap designs and am ready to start making custom boxes that I can install, advise on, and then relocate to the farm.

Trapping honey bee swarms prevents the bees from taking up residence in people’s homes, which results in costly cut-outs or active hives near their families and pets. Installing swarm traps gives me an opportunity to talk to people about the lifecycle of the honey bee and the importance of native bees. Plus, people are so excited when they actually catch a swarm!

What do you see yourself doing in the future?

I would like to continue working for BeeLoved Trading, as a beekeeper and entomologist. My primary job is rehoming local feral honey bee colonies onto the farm for honey production. I am so grateful for my entomology education that allows me to teach students, staff, and volunteers how to respectfully engage with insects on a food-producing farm. My goals are to learn how to manage farm, pasture, and pond landscapes in a way that promotes biodiversity and ecosystem health.

A hand with red-painted nails gently touches a blooming sunflower among a group of flowers in various stages of bloom. The background is filled with green, blurred trees, indicating an outdoor setting on a sunny day. — Bumble bees are important native pollinators in Oklahoma.

Last question, if you could be one colorful arthropod, what would you be?

If I could be any colorful arthropod I would be a mud dauber wasp (Sceliphron sp.). They look really intimidating but really are just gentle artists. I spend a lot of time playing outside in the mud with my two kids, and the mud daubers like to play in the mud with us, too.