Joe Calme, of Cassopolis, is a retired information technology specialist who now raises bees with his wife, Nancy. Joe is an honorary member of Cass County Pheasants Forever who is volunteering to help mentor students with Southwestern Michigan College’s Ag Club on beekeeping.

What made you want to help out with the project?

My wife and I are beekeepers. We are retired and we have a hobby farm on M-62. We have planted six or eight acres worth of prairie grass and wildflowers for habitat. We just think it is the right thing to do to help out with the bee population.

How did you first get involved with
Pheasants Forever?

It goes back a couple years. We first got involved with Frank Velazquez, in Cassopolis with the USDA office. We read about a program the last administration introduced that was helping out with honeybee habitats. We talked with him and enrolled in the program. We got approved and got some money to help with it. To plant the wildflowers and prairie grass, we talked to a company in Three Rivers, which planted our farm five years ago. We also found out that Pheasants Forever has this pollinator mix, so we contacted them.

We bought the seeds from them and he [CCPF President Jeff Nelson] planted them. The money we got from the USDA paid for about half of it. Because we did that, we got a complementary membership into Pheasants Forever, even though we are not hunters.

How did you get involved with the beekeeping project at the college?

When Jeff was over here for the planting, he told me about the three or four other places they were planting pollinators. I had known a beekeeper in Kalamazoo who had done something similar at Western Michigan. They have the students pay a sustainability fee as part of their tuition. There is money the students had to do projects, so they started a beekeeping program at Western. I knew the guy who runs that, and he is a nationally recognized entomologist. I talked with him and he gave me some tips. I wrote a proposal for Stacey Rocklin [the head of SMC’s Ag Club] and she took her to her dean, and her dean took it to the board. Then Nancy and I attended a Pheasants Forever meeting, and they approved the funding. I bought the equipment and the honeybees. We are going to have two hives.

What are some of the things you are going to be showing the students?

Last week, the ag club met and I gave about a 45 minute presentation on honeybees, talking about their biology and the history of beekeeping. I also showed off some equipment to them. I have another one-hour presentation planned sometime at a future ag club meeting.

In the meantime, we will meet one evening at the greenhouse where I help the students get the hives all assembled. At another meeting we have to get them painted. Finally, at the end of April, we will get the bees and we will get them installed in their hives.

In the summer, most of the students will probably be gone, so I will come over once or twice a week in the evening to see if the bees are doing fine. When the students get back in the fall, we will make sure the bees are still healthy.

Why are you volunteering your time for this project?

We are local residents, and we think the college is a wonderful asset to this community. My wife plays in the concert band, and I work part-time at the bookstore. We have taken a few classes here as well. We support the college. We also think it is great that people are planting habitats and putting up beehives. Hobby beekeepers are different from commercial beekeepers. We aren’t in it to make money but just to improve the environment.