HoneyBEe Jen
The photopackage:
A look into the life of Eugene, Oregon beekeeper, Jen Hornaday.
An exclusive interview following her journey to beekeeping and why she dedicates her time to protecting our precious pollinators, and a photo package capturing a day with her active hives.
Spring 2024
Role: Art Director
Photographer, Producer, Interviewer, Assistant Beekeeper
The Interview:
The house of one of Jen Hornaday’s clients. The backyard is home to 2 active bee hives that Hornaday maintains. The hives consist of multiple white stacked boxes, all containing 9 frames, full of bees, honey and pollen.
Hornaday utilizes a clamp tool to slowly lift and transfer a frame from one side of a hive, to the other. By doing this, Hornaday was able to create more space in certain parts of the hive, making room for the next hatch of bees.
With a lighter in one hand and a clamp tool safely gripping a smoker pellet in the other, Hornaday holds them together and waits as the pellet begins to produce a consistent stream of smoke. Once the pellet is lit, it is placed into a metal smoker which distributes smoke into the hive. This causes the bees to temporarily lose their sense of smell and their ability to smell alarm pheromones, ultimately allowing Hornaday to safely check the hive.
Jen Hornaday, a trained beekeeper, holds her bee suit before she prepares her tools, consisting of: a flat, scraper-like tool, a clamp tool, a metal smoker, and a brush, all used to maintain two active hives. Hornaday is beekeeping for her 14th year, and has since earned the nickname “Honeybee Jen.”
Hornaday uses a clamp tool to carefully raise and examine each frame of a hive. She assesses for the hive’s progress on honey production and if any new bee eggs had been laid.