Hank Baker, Honeybee Extension Educator, was hired at Langston in March 2024. He works with local colleges and beekeeping organizations to spread awareness about his work. His interest in beekeeping started with an interest in agriculture.
“I always had an interest in agriculture and farming, but I didn’t own thousands of acres of land, and I was trying to decide what I could do that related with agriculture, that I could fit on my own personal property…and that was kind of the beginning or the start of getting into it.”
According to the USDA, Honeybees are classified as livestock because they are food producing animals used for commercial purposes. They pollinate one-third of the foods that humans eat.
“Why is there so much emphasis placed by, say, the USDA?…the quick answer to that is honeybees are the only pollinator that we can manage and as a result of managing honeybees, we’re able to put them in boxes and we can relocate them on large agriculture fields. By their pollination efforts, the farmers get higher yields, from those higher yields the prices of healthy food products actually comes down.”
Baker teaches classes for Langston University, Oklahoma State University, and several beekeeping organizations. He works with different types of students and local farmers. For example, Barbara Perry, a stay-at-home mom living in Oklahoma, started her journey with bees working in her garden.
“I would sit in my backyard, and I grow some Russian sage, and they would just be covered every year with bees. . . and then somebody, I don’t know if it was my dad, they said they had gone out to the fair, and there was a bee booth there, and said, check it out, because I knew I loved the bees, so I did,” said Perry
The booth was hosted by the Central Oklahoma Beekeepers Association. She decided to attend a meeting and then some weekend classes at OSU, which prompted her to purchase her first colony. Her mentorship with Baker began when her backyard hives became infected by a bacterial disease known as foul brood, which attacks bee colonies. She said he was patient, understanding, and always willing to help.
“Hank shares just the love of bees. The first time I spoke, I called him. I didn’t meet him till it was either June or July, and I was having an issue with my hive. . . He just wanted to answer every question that I had at the time, and he still does that.”
Another one of Baker’s students is Amy Estep, a Health Careers Certification & Anatomy/Physiology Instructor at Chisholm Trail Technology Center. She has her own family farm and her own beekeeping TikTok account called Amy’s Apiary. She was looking for a new animal to help out with her farms.
“Thinking about making my own honey and just really having bees on our farm was something that appealed to me to help our fruit trees and just kind of add to the nature of the farm of having another type of animal to manage.”
She and Baker connected when she mentioned beekeeping at his past camera shop, Baker Photo and Video, which she frequented. He offered her mentorship, and she purchased her first colony from him in April 2023.
“Somebody like Hank can open your colony, they can really see how much honey is in here, and say they look like they’re in good shape or oh, you should feed them for a couple of more week. And so I’d say, you know, maybe those are some of the more specific times that he’s been really helpful.”
The School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences extension and outreach program works with local communities to educate them on the process of caring for honeybees. Those interested in learning about honeybee management can contact Baker at hank.baker10@langston.edu.
Ciera Agee
Ciera Agee is a junior broadcast journalism major
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