Anastasia Busby
Katy Hagley's Bees
Katy Hagely’s day is busier than the buzz of her beehive. Whether she’s picking her kids up from school, running to give her next lecture, or checking on her garden, Hagley’s constantly on the move. “By the time I get to the hobby type things, there's not much left of me,” Hagley said.
Left: Katy Hagley pulls on her beekeeper suit while her daughter Lucy watches through her mom’s hat on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023 at Hagley’s home in Jefferson City. Hagley usually only wears her suit when harvesting honey, but she put the pants on today so bees wouldn’t go up her skirt. Hagley came from her job as a plant science professor at the University of Missouri and didn’t have time to change.
Hagley has been keeping bees for 13 years, after her brother and dad started collecting hives on their farm. After helping out for a few years, she decided to start keeping her own bees at her home in Jefferson City, Mo.
Despite all the benefits and joy Hagley gets from her bees, she calls it a depressing hobby. Harsher summers and winters threaten bees' chances of survival; last winter, Hagley lost a hive, leaving her just one to tend to this summer. Usually her hives are at the edge of the woods behind her house, but these particular bees were a volunteer hive. The bees showed up in one of her old boxes in her driveway.
Right: One of Hagley's daughters, Lucy, runs down the stairs with a jar of honey.
Hagley removes the top box of her hive on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023 at Hagley’s home in Jefferson City. As summer comes to an end, the hive gets smaller as worker bees are no longer needed. Hagley keeps the two bottom boxes for the bees, leaving them enough honey to survive the winter.
Hagley pries out a honey slide from the hive to show her daughter Lucy on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023 at Hagley’s home in Jefferson City. Hagley shared a piece of honeycomb dripping with honey with her two daughters and dogs.
Life is hectic, but Hagley does her best to tend to her bees when she can find the time, always checking on them as she rolls past into her garage after a busy day. “You can hear when they sound like they're in distress…you kind of get intuitive about it,” Hagley said. While she doesn’t have the time to keep more hives, she certainly has the energy and enthusiasm and looks forward to collecting more hives as her kids get older.
Left: Bees come and go from the open hive on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023 at Hagley’s home in Jefferson City. “Every hive has a personality,” Hagley said, “and this hive, they're so chill, they’re good.”
Right: Hagley walks with her dogs through the woods behind her home on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023 at Hagley’s home in Jefferson City. Hagley and her husband bought 13 acres of woods behind their home a few years after moving in. “We kind of treat it like a big ol’ park,” Hagley said. “We got so lucky.”
