Olivia Moody has recently been crowned as a Bee Queen to become a role model for others. 

When Moody first started beekeeping, it was her father’s initial idea to get hives and learn, “but I quickly understood why it’s such an honorable hobby because I think the behavior of bees is so complex. It was really cool to learn about that through being hands on with the hives and it’s connected me to a lot of great people as well,” shared Moody.

Moody started beekeeping in 2020 and as time passes she is discovering new things about bees. Currently her bee journey has been giving her new things to learn from. Moody had nine hives over the summer and unfortunately they all died, but that is a very common thing to happen Moody learned. Hives can die, “due to a lot of mites, you can get or a disorder called CCD [Colony Collapse Disorder]. Which is when your whole hive dies,” Moody stated. 

Although her hives have all died, she plans on getting more in the near future and is going to learn from what happened with her last hives. 

Being crowned as bee queen Moody shared, “I feel really honored, it’s a really respected title.” 

Before being crowned Moody shared, she was “kinda nervous because a lot of the people that are a part of Central Iowa Beekeepers have been beekeeping their entire lives and I have only been beekeeping for two years, but while I was nervous I know that I am passionate about it and my passion while make me a great leader for Central Iowa Beekeepers.”

Since she is now the Central Iowa Bee Queen, Moody has responsibilities to uphold her title throughout the community. A few of the responsibilities Moody has are: completing at least six community service events, going to represent the organization at the Iowa State Fair, which includes a parade and honey booth, present some presentations, attend Honey Day at the Capitol on March 30 and take advantage of any opportunity she has to teach others of the importance of pollinators and attend farmers safety day at the elementary school. 

Overall, Moody has a lot of new responsibilities as Bee Queen, but has expressed her enthusiasm and passion to be able to have the honor of earning this title. 

Her final thoughts she wants people to remember she shared was, “If bees were gone, you would lose about 70-90% of all flowering plants. So I don’t think people realize that while bees might be scary, they are absolutely vital to our livelihood.”