Leonard Rau is a beekeeper and the managing partner of The Hive Supply Company, Chicago’s premier beekeeping store, established in 2016. In an exclusive interview with FieldWatch, Rau discusses the importance of registering beehives, what The Hive Supply Company provides and sells, and why urban beekeeping is helpful and satisfying.

Leonard Rau is a beekeeper and the managing partner of The Hive Supply Company, Chicago’s premier beekeeping store, established in 2016. Leonard lives in Chicago and enjoys urban agriculture.

FieldWatch (FW): How did you get started as a beekeeper?

Leonard Rau (LR): I like honey! And I wanted to show my kids how we could work with animals and support nature from our backyard. Since I was a child, I have been impressed with how honeybees fill an empty box with life and honey, and I wanted to give it a go! About seven years ago, a friend who had a few backyard hives encouraged me to get started, and I haven’t looked back. Keeping bees is a great way to combine practical skills with applied science.

FW: You’re the managing partner of The Hive Supply in Chicago. What do you provide from your store, including products and outreach?

LR: Yes, we support the Chicago beekeepers with products and advice. We also offer:

  • Education – for beekeepers and beyond. We teach urban beekeeping practice (intro to advanced), and we teach at schools and community events about bees, pollinators and the importance of insects.
  • Services – we manage apiary locations for businesses who want honey for their business or to support the local ecosystem.
  • Honey and candles – we remove honey from our own production hives for sale, and we take used beeswax from the hives and make candles, food wraps and other products. We do all these activities in Chicago to keep things local and to minimize travel and transport.

Our aim as a business is to educate Chicago residents about the importance of local growing while creating sustainable opportunities for people in Chicago through beekeeping.

FW: Why is FieldWatch’s mission of providing easy-to-use, reliable, accurate and secure online mapping tools intended to promote awareness and stewardship activities so crucial to apiarists?

LR: We hope that registering beehives will help to prevent over-saturation in urban areas. Backyard beekeepers might not realize just how many neighbors are keeping bees. We are sensitive to the needs of local bee species and to the problems that can occur when too many bees are concentrated in too small an area.

We enjoy how easy to use the tools are, as it means we can get on with what we want to be doing, working with our animals out in the field, and not sitting behind a computer!

FW: Why should someone consider urban beekeeping?

LR: For a few simple reasons:

  • You are always learning something when you work with bees. If you’re the kind of person with a relentless curiosity for learning, but the patience to watch and observe, then beekeeping is a great thing to do.
  • Honey is delicious. Local honey is delicious, and we believe good for you. The bees making the honey are helping to pollinate local plants and do good for the environment. Also, producing your own honey reduces the need for honey to be shipped around the world.
  • Keeping bees is highly satisfying. While beekeeping in the Midwest has challenges relating to the weather, keeping bees increases your connection to the seasons, and your observation skills are ever-improving.

FW: Why should beekeepers consider registering with BeeCheck by FieldWatch if it’s available in their states?

LR: In Illinois, you are required to register your beehives, which is a good thing, as it helps if diseases need to be tracked or if the bee population faces a new danger.