Morgan Day has hardly ever been scared of bees, but her older brothers are.

So every weekend, the 15-year-old and her dad, David Day, do what David says wouldn’t be possible without Morgan: care for thousands of bees across multiple Midlands counties.

David got into beekeeping in 2010. He said he wanted to get into some kind of farming, and was drawn to beekeeping because of their self-sufficiency, though that’s not to be mistaken for low-maintenance.

“You don’t need to have a fence, you don’t need to feed them,” he said. “They go out and find their own food, and they make something that you can sell, but I like it because I like watching them. … but they're actually high maintenance. … A healthy hive can die so fast.”

So, a lot of the work David and Morgan do is more about saving the bees than it is nurturing the bees. This is because of the Varroa mite, a parasitic mite that feeds on honey bees.

Dressed in long pants, the two go out every weekend during the warmer months, put on the beekeeping veil, sometimes gloves, and get their smoker ready. Lighting some dry brush in the smoker and blowing a little smoke on the bees calms them down, because they sort of panic and gorge on honey, thinking they might have to evacuate, but when they’re full of honey, they slow down some and are less likely to sting.

The thing to keep in mind, David said, is that a loud hive is likely an unhappy hive, and an unhappy hive is likely without its queen, who can be hard to spot. And that’s where Morgan’s young eyes come in real handy, according to David. When they locate the queen, they mark her with a little white paint that’s safe for bees.

“A lot of times, you can tell when a hive is queenless when you open it up and you hear that loud buzzing and they're moving really fast,” he said. “I'd say 90% of the time, that means there's a problem with the queen. But if you find a queen, then I've got to think, is she new? Because then that would mean her pheromones aren't as strong. Or is she gone? Did she die? Did I accidentally kill her? Did something happen? So you listen, you listen, you look.”

The patience involved with listening and listening and looking is integral to beekeeping, as well as David’s 9-5.

A captain with the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, he is used to growing comfortable with being uncomfortable. David and his family sell their honey at farmers’ markets, and it's in those settings that he finds himself using skills he sharpened in law enforcement and sheriff’s department administrative duties, including standing and public speaking.

“I've always been an introvert, but every place that I've gone has led me to do more and more public speaking. It has helped me for sure, because when you're dealing with a market and people are walking by, I will never sit. You have to stand up, and that comes from work, too,” he said. “We ask them, ‘Would you like to try some honey?’ And it engages them.”

And in the same way that David has to perceive attitudes in people while selling bee products and while wearing his badge, he says a lot of beekeeping is up to understanding their attitudes, too.

Morgan says she doesn’t feel like the bees like her long, dark hair, so she wears it up when inspecting hives. And both of them agree that bees sense nerves, which is perhaps why they don’t like David’s oldest sons as much, who are scared of the bees.

Every hive has a personality, David said. He and Morgan love the bees like they love their cat, goat, chickens and guinea pig at home.

If you want to get into beekeeping, the Days recommend joining a beekeeping club and finding a mentor there. Joining a club in the fall is most ideal, David said.

“Because that's when all your beekeepers have nothing to do,” he said. “Go to the clubs and you can just sit and listen to them and learn and read. … And then you actually get to go to somebody's bee yard and do what we've kind of done. You can put your hands in a hive and determine, ‘Is this for me or not?’”

Visit the Lexington County Beekeepers Association website and the South Carolina Beekeepers Association website to learn more.

“As beekeepers, we have both the responsibility and opportunity to advocate for pollinators, in order to protect the biodiversity enjoyed by all species of our planet,” according to perfectbee.com. “All insects, good and bad, wild and managed, have been declining over the last half-century. The increase in the use of pesticides in agricultural and urban areas, as well as a decrease in environmental diversity, puts tremendous pressure on pollinators. … Honey bees matter!

“They are essential not just to us, as beekeepers, but to the human race as a whole. Likewise, the role of the beekeeper has become ever more important as global threats to bees have grown. Indeed, this is one of the reasons many beekeepers choose to keep bees, namely because bees are so important.”

So for David and Morgan, beekeeping is a service to the environment and therefore to us, but it also grows their bond as father and daughter. Their drives to their Midlands hives are where they get all their chatting done, and it's in farmers markets where David’s wife and all their kids are involved. While David said his sons prefer to stay away from the bees, they’re sure good at selling honey.

And on the front of the bottles he sells of his raw and unfiltered honey, all David’s kids are listed: Morgan, Mark, Matthew, Michael and Mason.

Learn more about the Days’ business, Dry Creek Honey, at https://www.facebook.com/drycreekhoneybeefarm/ or contact David at drycreekhoney@outlook.com.