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About Us
They Keep Bees is based in the Connecticut River Valley watershed in Western Massachusetts.
Currently, we manage 250 hives. In a hive of honey bees, the influences of the ecosystem shape the actions of the hive as a collective. As stewards of honeybees, we listen to the ecology around us and observe the response within our hives to make decisions about the best actions we can take as beekeepers.
From our hives, we harvest honey and beeswax. We produce queen bees and starter hives for beekeepers and teach courses on how to raise bees responsively.
Our passion is raising resilient and adaptive queen bees, teaching aspiring beekeepers how to build sustainable apiaries and building social resilience by connecting communities of people to communities of pollinators.
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Photo credit: epli
Ang Roell
Ang leads queen breeding and educational program design at TKB. In 2021 they started a sustainable apiary management program called “Queen School”. To date, Queen School has trained 35 BIPOC & LGBTQ+ farmers in sustainable apiary management and 75 emergent professional beekeepers.
Ang has co-published peer reviewed research on queen quality in the Journal of Apicultural Research. They are a member of the Adaptive Bee Breeders Alliance (ABBA)- a group led by Melanie Kirby- dedicated to building resilient beekeeping skills and preserving diverse honey bee genetics. Since 2023, Ang has trained in Instrumental Insemination with Megan Mahoney. Together with ABBA, they are collecting and cryopreserving diverse honey bee genetics for the USDA National Germplasm Repository in Fort Collins, CO.
Ang started cultivating queen lines for They Keep Bees in 2016 with a seed grant from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, and started They Keep Bees in 2019.
As a beginner, Ang studied beekeeping with Dee Lusby and Kirk Webster. Then worked with Sam Comfort to fine tuning their grafting and queen handling skills.
Ang’s off-farm professional background is in education, evaluation and facilitation.
Photo credit: Candace Hope
Bi Kline
Bi Kline is the co-operator of They Keep Bees. Bi co-leads apiary management, and co-facilitates all of TKB’s educational offerings. Bi lead land tending projects at They Keep Bees including both forest and pasture management. Bi is currently spearheading the planting of over 100 chestnut trees at our home apiary in Western Massachusetts.
Bi formally joined TKB in 2019 hauling 50 nucleus hives from Florida to Massachusetts to fill TKB's first orders ever. Thanks to the help of a tiny but mighty Mazda B2300 pick up named “Little Trucky” Bi and Ang traversed the East Coast successfully and launched TKB as a business. From there Bi leapt into the deep end of the bee world, becoming a skilled queen catcher. Bi has spent the last four years immersed in queen production and research. Now Bi manages many of the operational elements of They Keep Bees as a partner and co-owner.
Bi has an extensive background as a Learning Specialist and Classroom Teacher in the Public School System from 2008-2018. Bi holds a Masters of Education in Special Education. Bi's background in agriculture is rooted in vegetable and mixed green farming with Yard Birds Farm, where they grew mixed greens and vegetables for a community CSA. Bi is also an avid drummer with 20 years of practice under their belt. Bi knows how to manage everything from a classroom to a chaotic apiary with grace, ease and rhythm.
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