Morgan Freeman’s Bees

By now, most beekeepers have heard that Morgan Freeman is a beekeeper. Morgan Freeman is incredible. Whether you enjoyed him driving over Miss Daisy or just gaining redemption after Shawshank, you likely admired the way the man can perform.

I’ve long appreciated Freeman as an actor, but really began to appreciate him when I started watching his series of science documentaries on Discovery, the astrophysics lectures called Through the Wormhole. Respect for the actor is deep – he was born in Tennessee, grew up in rural Mississippi, yet became comfortable in Hollywood. To top it off, at age 65 he earned his pilot’s license and he flies a Cessna 414. He’s now 79. He decided to become a beekeeper a couple years ago, at age 76. And it’s not just a one-hive gimmick – he’s got about 40 hives on his Mississippi farm.

Here are a couple of clips of Freeman the beeman on TV:

More bee talk, a couple nights ago:

About Ron Miksha

Ron Miksha is a bee ecologist working at the University of Calgary. He is also a geophysicist and does a bit of science writing and blogging. Ron has worked as a radio broadcaster, a beekeeper, and Earth scientist. (Ask him about seismic waves.) He's based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Ron has written two books, dozens of magazine and journal articles, and complements his first book, Bad Beekeeping, with the blog at badbeekeepingblog.com. Ron wrote his most recent book, The Mountain Mystery, for everyone who has looked at a mountain and wondered what miracles of nature set it upon the landscape. For more about Ron, including some cool pictures taken when he was a teenager, please check Ron's site: miksha.com.

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7 Responses to Morgan Freeman’s Bees

Emily Scott says:

October 5, 2016 at 2:24 pm

Yay 🙂 Impressed that he doesn’t wear a suit.

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- Ron Miksha says:
  
  October 5, 2016 at 6:21 pm
  
  He’s brave, but I’m hoping he’s started using a smoker.
  
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Mike hilburn says:

February 24, 2019 at 8:59 am

Can I come over there to see your bees I like keeping bees my self I am in star la.

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- Ron Miksha says:
  
  March 1, 2019 at 8:12 pm
  
  You bet, but it’s -29 here in Calgary tonight and the bees aren’t flying. July might be warmer with more to see in the hives.
  
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edward maans says:

February 28, 2021 at 3:54 pm

i have an idea for keeping honey bees safe from the murder hornets that i have not seen being used, built a chicken wire enclosure around the hives that allow the size of honey bees but not the size of the much larger hornets

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- Ron Miksha says:
  
  February 28, 2021 at 5:33 pm
  
  Hi Edward,
  Since this wasp is new to North America, you might be the first to think of this here. In Japan, some do use wire netting. I hear it’s a hassle to keep it from stretching out of perfect shape and keeping it tight to the ground with no gaps, but it sounds like it would work.
  If the hive has no cracks or holes in it, something designed to simply cover entrances should keep the wasps out of the hive, too.
  Neither method would stop these big wasps from picking off the bees that are in flight.
  But your solution might help a lot. Thanks.
  
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