By Darcy Spencer, News4 Reporter • Published May 21, 2025 • Updated on May 21, 2025 at 7:30 pm
Bee Culture Feb 25.pdfSean McKenzie’s journey from honey hunting in Jamaica to leading urban beekeeping in Washington, DC began with a natural affinity for bees and mentorship in a school apiary. He now manages over 150 colonies, specializes in queen rearing and breeding, and teaches at key institutions. Through Capitol Bee CARE and Bee CARE Institute, he advances research and education. His work blends science, stewardship, and outreach to shape resilient pollinator communities.
Check out the runaway bees.
By ABC News
June 19, 2015, 5:24 PM
Capitol Hill had a hive mentality today -- literally!
Thousands of runaway bees on the north side of the Capitol busted out of their hive and began swarming around a tree. The problem was so severe that the Capitol had to call in beekeepers -- one of whom is actually a staffer in the House of Representatives.
Capitol Police put yellow tape around the area where the bees were most concentrated, and the beekeepers got to work. Using a small cardboard box, they first trapped the queen bee, which prompted all of her “subjects” to follow her into the box.
One of the beekeepers they called in was Cynthia Martin, the Chief of Staff to Rep. John Conyers of Michigan. A longtime bee hobbyist, this was the first time she got to assist in a trap-and-release on the Hill.
Once the majority had been trapped in the box, the keepers put them in Martin’s car, and the hive sped off to their new home.
There were still hundreds of bees who didn’t get in the box, who one of the beekeepers, from Capitol Bee CARE, said will eventually make their way back to the original hive, and rebuild the colony.
The bees were honeybees, which are very docile unless they feel threatened. Tourists and reporters stopped to take pictures but the bees went about their business – just like lawmakers on the House and Senate floor.
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By Ted Barrett, CNN
Updated 8:39 AM EDT, Sat June 20, 2015
Washington CNN —
In an unusual sight on Capitol Hill Friday afternoon, beekeepers were called in to capture and remove about 15,000 honey bees that had swarmed around the main Senate entrance of the U.S. Capitol Building, frightening onlookers before landing in a tree.
Three volunteer beekeepers, including one who is a top congressional aide, worked carefully but without protective suits to capture the queen and her thousands of offspring.
The bees had been out of their nest in search of a new, larger home, according to Rachel Perry of Capitol Bee Care, an organization that works to protect honey bee colonies that, for a variety of reasons, are dying off in large numbers. Wearing just a scarf hanging over her head, Perry sat patiently beneath the tree luring the bees into a hole in a medium-sized cardboard box that was sealed with gaffers tape, gently nudging with a brush the last stragglers inside.
U.S. Capitol Police officers, one carrying a large automatic rifle that probably wasn’t going to help him against the bees, cordoned off the area with yellow tape and kept passersby at bay. They gazed with amusement as the beekeepers did their daring work, a welcome distraction from their typical police duties. The beekeepers explained to the officers that no one risked getting stung because when bees leave their nests in search of another, they fill up with honey first, so they can survive the journey. Once packed with honey, they are unlikely to sting.
Lawmakers from both sides of the Capitol had left Washington after their last votes Thursday so they were not around when the bees arrived. Their absence meant that Cynthia Martin, a lawyer who is chief of staff to Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, was able to run over to the Senate side after getting word of the swarm.
Martin, who described herself as a honeybee hobbyist, hugged the other two beekeepers after loading the box of bees into her car. “Thank you so much for your help,” she said. “My first swarm that I actually captured!” Before pulling away, Martin said, “The only thing that is scary is when you’re driving and a bee gets loose.” She said she would bring them to her house to join another nest she already cares for in her backyard. Martin’s interest in honey bees has led Conyers to push legislation in recent years that would require the Environmental Protection Agency to study whether certain approved insecticides are contributing to the demise of honey bees.
Published on May 20, 2015
Sean McKenzie is a beekeeper in America's Washington, DC area. McKenzie, 38, has been a beekeeper since 2006 and helped to look after an apiary in the White House grounds. "Bees play a major role in our ecosystem. About a third of the foods we eat are pollinated by bees," says McKenzie. "They pollinate the trees to produce fruits which feeds birds, which feeds humans. Without the bees, many organisms wouldn’t have the ability to procreate. "Bees have been dying because of lack of habitat, pesticides, herbicides and a problem known as colony collapse disorder. "You have longer winters. With the climate changes, you have too short of a spring," McKenzie says."It’s a crisis because there aren’t enough bees to carry out the job of producing the number of bees needed for pollination each year.We’ve seen a 30 per cent loss."McKenzie has been trying to combat the problem by breeding local strains of bees."What I do is try to select for genetic diversity and also adaptability so that we can have better bees," he says. "Bees are our friends, they’re our pals.
THE BUZZ ON THE BUSY BEES AT CAPITOL BEE CARE
3/26/2018
The event:
Visit Fort Dupont Park to focus on areas of the Sustainable DC plan, including Health & Wellness, Equity & Diversity, Nature, and Food. We will discover the park by bike with a Ranger-led tour and visit the Fort Dupont Community Gardens to learn about bees/pollinators from Capitol Bee CARE.
We had a lovely time and the youth seemed to really get it.
5/16/2015
In DC beekeeper Sean McKenzie, President of President of Capital Bee Care LLC has been witness to the bees’ struggles for many years. His academic research has been ongoing since 2010 and his research has been published in the proceedings of the 2012 conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the 2013 conference of the National Institute of Science, and the 2013 conference of the National Scientific Honors Society.
3/19/2015
Sean McKenzie explaining bee facts to visitors at the USDA farmers market.
This year’s data was dramatic. The 30 packages of bees McKenzie ordered from a breeder in Georgia last year did not overwinter very well – 28 out of them did not make it through the cold. By contrast, 95% of his locally-raised queens flourished and are going strong in their hives all around DC.
His goal is to create a sort of Consumer Reports or “Angie’s List” report for beekeepers. “I take the losses for everyone,” Sean told me with a smile.
Read more: https://www.beaconreader.com/alison-gillespie/another-bad-year-for-honey-bees?ref=profile
4/19/2016
Plants that bloom early in spring and late in summer are especially helpful to honey bees. This was the theme at our first annual Bee Friendly Flower Day event. Rebekah Newbie from the School Without Walls had the idea to create this event as part of her Senior project. Washington Parks and People were very generous in letting us take over their garden for a day and plant things that will help the bees to build up in the early spring. At the event we also built bee hive boxes and painted them the Capitol Bee CARE signature colors of blue and yellow. All participants young and less young made seed bombs using clay, milkweed seeds and worm poo. We asked participants to plan where they would bomb before they left the event. Thank you Rebekah, Steve Catts (Washington, Parks and People), and all the folks that came out on a bluster beautiful morning in March to support their local pollinators.
3/3/2015
Snow coated the bee hives this winter. The ground was frozen up to two inches deep and a few of the clusters were too small and too cold to move to the food that was all around them. This is a critical time and bees may need supplemental feeding. The food should be placed above the cluster.
It may be a bit early to count the bees but so far our locally adapted bees are hanging in there.
8/15/2013
For two weeks in July 2013 Sean McKenzie volunteered in Haiti to put on the first ever Beginner Beekeeping Class conducted by the Farmer to Farmer Program. This course has been a long time in the making, satisfying the demand to bring new beekeepers - especially more women and youth - into the trade. With this training, those who formerly did not have access to this type of training received the information needed to embark on a new environmentally-friendly economic activity, and help revitalize the beekeeping industry in Haiti.
to learn more visit: http://farmertofarmer.blogspot.com/2013/08/first-f2f-beginner-beekeeping-class-in.html#comment-form_8951345176335139436
7/10/2012
By Kathryn McConnell | Staff Writer | 10 July 2012
At the 2012 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Sean McKenzie talks about his passion for bees. He is next to one of his hives. Washington — America’s diversity in agriculture and culture was on display at the recent 10-day Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington.
One popular exhibit highlighted the contributions that bees make to agriculture. Wearing a cap adorned with a large stuffed bumblebee, Sean McKenzie described his passion for raising bees and efforts to teach others about the value of the flying insects.
“There is a stigma about bees,” he said. “People usually think of them in terms of honey and stings. But bees are a main pollinator of all the crops we eat.” McKenzie, a keeper of 12 hives, volunteer bee educator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and student at the University of the District of Columbia, pointed to the queen bee in a hive that he hopes will produce five gallons of honey in 2012.
Read more: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2012/07/201207108740.html#ixzz3bHnIJHaH
