THE BEEKEEPERS
of LICKING COUNTY

What do two retirees, a director of admissions, and a middle schooler all have in common? 

Bees. 

They all are a part of the East Central Ohio Beekeepers Association, or ECOBA. ECOBA is a non-profit organization focused on sharing knowledge and educating beekeepers ranging from hobbyists to professionals.

Keegan Andrews-Gartner, of Newark, didn’t always know he wanted to be a beekeeper. When he was 6 years old, he saw an East Central Ohio Beekeepers Association booth at the Hartford County Fair and begged his moms to let him apply for one of the ECOBA scholarships.

Every year, at the county fair, Keegan would ask. And every year his mom, Amanda Andrews, would have to give him the same answer: You aren’t old enough. 

Until 2020, when Keegan turned 9. 

Officially, he was old enough to apply for the scholarship. So, he did. 

And he got it. 

“We thought he was never going to get the scholarship,” said Amanda, “but they called us, and it was kind of a no brainer. … We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into.”

On the other side of the elusive beekeeping scholarships are the mentors. There with lifetimes of experience, Larry Gamble and Will Harris have handed out their information to the next generation of beekeepers for many years. 

When Will Harris, 70, of Hebron, retired from a career as a commercial diver 13 years ago, he was in need of a hobby. When Gamble, 69, retired from working for the City of Zanesville 12 years ago, he, too, needed something to keep him out of trouble. 

And by a wave of a magic wand, or out of desperation for an activity, they both found beekeeping. 

Gamble, a Chandlersville resident, learned the trade through ECOBA, while Harris found himself a mentor. At his age, Harris was slightly older than the typical nine to 13 year old mentee, but so was his mentor. 

Mr. Ed, as Harris calls him, lives four miles away from him, and has served as a mentor for Harris as long as he has been beekeeping. Today, Mr. Ed is 95 years old, and still passing on his knowledge to Harris. 

But today, Mr. Ed is not the only mentor in the lineage, as both Harris and Gamble have mentees of their own. Both mentoring kids under the age of 15, Harris and Gamble have been acting as a guidepost for the young beekeepers, there to put out any fires they may encounter in the rollercoaster that is beekeeping. 

“Being a mentor … it's interesting. Real interesting,” said Harris, “but I’m a big fan.” 

In the last six years, Gamble has mentored three children, including a brother and sister duo. In addition to his one-on-one mentoring duties, Gamble has taught at the beginning level beeyard for the last 10 years. Beeyard, which happens every Thursday at Taft Reserve South, is an opportunity to learn about beekeeping by getting a hands-on look at ECOBAs beehives. Mentors and more experienced members of the club, like Gamble, pass on their knowledge to adults and kids alike. 

“I just love teaching people about this amazing insect,” said Gamble. 

Unlike Keegan, Carrianne Meng never knew that beekeeping was in her future. But every surprise of her bee journey has been serendipitous, a dose of magic in the otherwise mundane. 

In 2021, Meng, the 39-year-old associate director of admission at Denison University, and her partner moved into an old house in Alexandria. With an acre of land in the back, the possibilities were endless. Days after moving, Meng was sat next to Jeff Acuff at a local restaurant and bar. 

Jeff, in classic midwestern style, asked what her plans were for the land behind the house. Before she knew it Meng heard herself say, “Oh, I want to keep bees.” 

“I thought to myself: ‘Why did I say I wanted to keep bees, I have never thought that,’” Meng said. 

And in a stroke of magic that could only be written in a movie, Jeff was a beekeeper in search of someone to take the hobby off his hands. He had a trailer of tools and two hives of bees that he was ready to hand off to the next keeper. 

“My dad died in 2015, and every now and then I’m like, ‘is that my dad?’ Jeff was one of those moments,” said Meng.

Without any concept of beekeeping in practice, Meng googled “bee school.” In another wave of the universe's magic wand, she spent the Saturday of her 37th birthday at Taft Reserve South, at an ECOBA bee school, learning about the intricacies of beekeeping. 

A couple months later, once the winter frost wore off, Jeff and a trailer full of bees pulled into her driveway. 

Two years, and many reads of “Beekeeping for Dummies,” later, Meng has four hives and more than 80,000 bees. 

Like any successful hive, ECOBA is a hotspot of information and familiarity. Not unlike a honeybee returning to the hive to direct others to pollen with a waggle dance, each member of ECOBA, sans dancing, passes information to one another to continue to help the bee community thrive. They do it by listening to speakers, and over dinner on the colorful plastic tablecloths. 

“There is a joke that if you ask 20 beekeepers a question you will get 20 different answers,” said Meng, “I think that is why the community is so important. You want a variety of perspectives. You want to hear that there is no one right way and you are doing fine. And I think that is so much about life, too. There is no one right way.”