Area Veteran Graduates MSU Beekeeping Course
Published: Friday, November 12, 2021
Thirty-two-year U.S. Air Force veteran Kent Bergman started keeping bees initially to produce raw honey for his family in rural Whitley County near the small community of Laud. His hobby has grown from there into a budding business that keeps him busy in his retirement from the military.
"I just wanted to have real honey for my family. When I found out that most of the honey in the stores is adulterated with other things and is pasteurized, I decided to have my own hives. Because I grew up on that," said Bergman. "A man named Charlie Luther, who lived a couple of miles from here, ran bee hives for years and we always bought honey from him. My dad had hay fever and started eating local honey and his hay fever went away."
After marketing small amounts of honey beyond his family's needs to his fellow service members for a few years, this year he had enough extra to start marketing his home-grown Wild Bee Honey to the general public. He said that 2021 was an exceptional production year and he took 100-plus jars to local farmers markets in Huntington and Roanoke.
He and his wife returned to the area where he grew up, with his parents living just around the corner. The Bergmans current house, built in 1997, is surrounded by three and a half acres of green space with many trees, vegetable and flower gardens, fruit trees, raspberry bushes, a new grape arbor, a pond and is bordered by neighboring farm fields. This gives his bees plenty of room to forage.
Even though he's had a few hives for several years, he wanted to know more about beekeeping. When a Veterans Affairs (VA) newsletter mentioned a beekeeping course called "Heroes to Hives" in January, he submitted an application and was accepted into the nine-month course conducted by Michigan State University Extension for 2021. His studious efforts yielded a course completion certificate last week.
Bergman shared that he feels Heroes to Hives is an excellent, in-depth course and one of the best available in the nation. He highly recommends the course to others.
According to Bergman, the government is encouraging an increase in beekeepers to help increase domestic honey production since the U.S. has to import additional honey from overseas to meet market demand.
"We learned in the course that currently two-thirds of all of the honey that we eat in America comes from other countries such as China, Argentina, Mexico and Canada."
Bergman got his start with wild-caught honey bees, hence the name of his business—Wild Bee Honey. He has at least two distinct strains of bees in his hives based on observation of the markings of the bees. He still catches wild swarms that he finds and collects bees on request from others who contact him. And, he regularly "splits" his current hives when the bee population in a particular hive outgrows the space.
He currently has five hives with an approximate total of 120,000 bees, and two more are planned for next year. Over time he has used several types of hives including Langstroth, Warre, long hives and top-bar hives, but currently he has a few hybrid versions of the Langstroth and Warre hive designs that he constructed himself and a long hive. His hives produced 180-plus pounds of honey in 2021.
After graduating from Columbia City High School, Bergman enlisted in the Air Force in May of 1984. He did his basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and then spent a year in Denver, Colo. in electronics training courses. The bulk of his military career was served at the 122nd Fighter Wing Air National Guard Base in Fort Wayne. His specialty was avionics, which are the electronic systems in jets and airplanes, but he also worked on airborne video equipment, vehicle electronics in the motor pool, and finally aerospace ground equipment.
Over his time in the service he worked with F4 Phantom, F16, and A10 Warthog fighter jets at the 122nd. He retired on Dec. 31, 2016.
One highlight of his military career was when Air Force One brought President George W. Bush to deliver a commencement speech at Notre Dame in South Bend in May 2001. Personnel from the 122nd were sent to take care of Air Force One while in South Bend, and Bergman was among them. He says that he and his fellow service men and women were allowed to take a tour of the aircraft while in charge of its maintenance and security during that time.
"A lot of people don't know this, but as soon as the president steps off Air Force One, it is turned over to the Air Force. And, as soon as he steps on board we turn it over to the Secret Service," explained Bergman.
Heroes to Hives creator Adam Ingrao, is an instructor in the Entomology Department at Michigan State University and a veteran who experienced his own difficulties upon returning home from active duty. He said the program provides purpose to participating veterans.
"Michigan alone is home to over 600,000 veterans who are facing a multitude of challenges as they transition from military to civilian life. These challenges include anxiety, depression, dealing with service-related health complications and disabilities, and finding career opportunities that are personally rewarding. Heroes to Hives offers veterans a chance to reconnect with their brothers and sisters in arms with a common mission of protecting the most important managed pollinator on the planet."
Bergman was among thousands of applicants for this year's course, which saw an unprecedented increase in enrollment from previous years, according to Ingrao. He explained that since the course's inception in 2015 through last year, they had trained about 700 veterans, and 277 dependents, from 25 states who manage over 4,000 hives collectively. Then, the floodgates of applicants opened.
In a video released in mid-February of this year, Ingrao talked about the huge increase in interest in this year's program and planned access to next year's course.
"We have been, in the last couple of years, the largest agriculture education program for military veterans in the country and last year our enrollment was about 500 students. We were prepared for about 1,000 students this year. Since the VA article came out we have received over 6,000 applications for our program this year. And, with dependent applications that brings the number to 8,000-10,000. That volume far exceeds any that we were ready for. Those who didn't make it into the 2021 course are being given early access in October to sign up for 2022. Then, the 2022 course will open to new applicants in November."
Heroes to Hives instruction runs from March to November each year. It is offered at no cost to veterans, reservists, active-duty military, spouses and children of military members who are at least 18 years old. The course includes over 40 lectures (60 plus hours of material) covering topics including, but not limited to, bee biology, pest and pathogens, and hive management. In addition, there are instructional videos, handouts, suggested reference books and, for those participants close enough to the university offering the course, the chance for hands-on apiary experience. However, the on-ground apiary training is not required to complete the course.
The curriculum is self-paced, but each module must be completed within a month and the entire course must be finished by the end of November. Participants take short tests at the completion of each module and then a final exam. A score of 70 percent or better is required to pass.
In an effort to accommodate more students, in addition to Michigan the Heroes to Hives program is now offered at land-grant universities in Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska. They are hoping to expand the program to every state eventually. For more information on Heroes to Hives, contact Ingrao at ingraoad@mus.edu or 951 / 237-5311 or go to the Heroes to Hives website at https://www.canr.msu.edu/veterans/veterans-programming/Heroes-to-Hives/.
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