Sarah C’s Bees – The Accidental Beekeeper

Sarah Cross: beekeeping enthusiast, erstwhile apiary researcher, community educator, and hobbyist coach. She doesn’t even like the honey, but she loves the bees and loves working with people. Chris Northcott spoke with Cross to hear about how she became a beekeeper, learned the trade under perhaps New Zealand’s preeminent bee scientist, and now her unique way of earning a living by it.

Waikato beekeeper Sarah Cross’s combination of a Bachelor of Science with beekeeping training under Dr Mark Goodwin makes her expertly suited to provide beekeeping assistance to those seeking knowledge and training.

Cross, from Ngāruawāhia in Waikato, is a bug scientist by training (an “entomologist”, if you want the proper term), but working with bees was never part of the plan for her. She had originally wanted her Bachelor of Science (University of Waikato) to land a job with New Zealand’s Customs Service to work in biosecurity, but that wasn’t to be.

Her first job out of university was with Plant and Food Research at Ruakura, Hamilton. The job interview was also her first time to open a beehive! That initial glimpse inside a hive was an unforgettable moment. All went well and Cross landed the job – going from having never seen the inside of a beehive to being given 200 to care for.

As their semi-commercial apiary manager, Cross was trained by leading apiculture scientist Dr. Mark Goodwin. Her work involved assisting him in his honeybee research: designing experiments for trialling treatments, American foulbrood (AFB) research, toxicity testing, pollination trials for horticultural companies, and more. As Cross put it, “he had the big ideas, and together we made them happen.”

Over her eight years on the job, Dr. Goodwin was her boss, supervisor, mentor, and remains a friend to this day. After he retired, she decided it was time to earn her living with her beekeeping skills elsewhere. She enjoyed the science but loved doing things with people more – and so in 2022 she sought new ways to earn a living through bees.

Hands-on Hobbyist Helper

One of the people-oriented outlets for her now-established apiarist skills comes in the form of offering beekeeping services, through her Sarah C’s Bees business.

Hobbyist beekeepers are often in need of a little bit of expert assistance that they are not always able to acquire elsewhere and thus Cross helps less experienced beekeepers in the Waikato region. This involves keeping the hive tool in their hands while their own hives are open, offering guidance, services, and answers on the spot while their heads are in the hive.

It might be that they need a certified AFB inspection, or aren’t sure if the varroa treatment is working, why the brood looks the way it does, or they may simply want some advice as they set up a new hive. She helps them to learn on the job, in their own hives.

When we spoke in February she had recently been helping some hobbyists to harvest honey. Cross emphasizes that she doesn’t want people’s beekeeping hobby to become a great stress to them. She wants to bring the joy back to beekeeping – “I want them to love it”, she explains.

Sarah C’s Bees sees owner Sarah Cross teach beekeeping skills and knowledge to bee clubs, individual hive owners, schools, kindergartens and even retirement centres. 

Unfortunately, in many instances she is the proverbial ambulance at the bottom of the cliff and she avers that it is better to talk to an experienced beekeeper before there is a crisis. But many hobby beekeepers have found her tutelage invaluable. As one happy client puts it in a testimonial on her www.SarahCsBees.co.nz website, “Getting Sarah to come in and check through our hive has been one of the best things we could have done. I learned more in that hour than I have from reading multiple books and watching endless videos.”

Community Talks

The other service Cross offers is in giving community talks with live bees. Schools, kindergartens, and retirement centres call on Cross to present the wonders of a honeybee colony, up close, in a windowed observation hive. Using the knowledge acquired from her research background, Cross shares a science-based infotainment session about the lives and habits of honeybee colonies.

One common occurrence she has noticed is that no matter what the age group, there is always the same kinds of people. There are those who are “overly-enthusiastic”, avidly asking every conceivable question that could be asked. There are the more “middle of the road” types, interested but reserved, asking only the select few questions they want to know about. And then there are what she calls the “nose pickers”. This kind are not all that interested and pay little attention. For these listeners, it is best to get the most important facts out first!

The Other Kind of Bee Escape

Public displays of beekeeping are sometimes not without their foibles, and the first time Cross used her observation hives the event did not go quite according to plan. Her beautifully crafted observation hives were built by a woodworker, not a beekeeper. One tiny measurement was fractionally off, leaving a teeny drill hole gap that a bee could wriggle out of (Cross confesses the hive was not field tested first!).

During her presentation – at a kindergarten – the first few bees came out. Not noticing where they had come from, Cross thought they were local bees attracted in by the smell of the hive. She dismissed them as unimportant – “I had full faith in my little observation hive!” Since she was nearly done, she finished the presentation and was in the process of packing up. At this point she noticed a little girl crying – she had been stung! A silver lining to this mishap came in the form of a little boy demonstrating that he had been listening, as he solemnly pointed out that it was a “girl bee” who had done the sting!

An Anecdote for the Hard-Working Dads

Something Cross likes to explain about honeybee colonies is that the “boy bees” are rather lazy, and that it is the “girl bees” who do all the work. Kids often say, “That’s just like my dad at home!”

To contact Sarah Cross or for more information on her work and publications, see her website www.SarahCsBees.co.nz.