bee enthusiast
ROB HICKS, KELVYN PARK
Rob has a little jungle of a backyard in Chicago’s Kelvyn Park neighborhood. His Italian honeybees reside in beehives that were originally designed in the 1880s. He has two hives and runs a beehive group for Chicagoans on meetup.com. He advocates for all municipalities to allow residents to keep bees. Some do not allow it. Rob helps people set up their hives, providing guidance about what time of year and day are best, encouraging folks to talk with their neighbors beforehand.
Learning that bees are not the “boogeycreatures” that people make them out to be was a positive for Rob. Learning to make mead was another. He shares this bit of insight, “…bees are patient teachers and will teach you how to care for them by rewarding you with honey if you keep well and punish you with stings if you keep poorly.”