Hi, I’m Sophie and I love bugs!
Bee Admirer (She/They)
I am a queer beekeeper and pollinator enthusiast in Portland, Maine. While studying biology in school I became fascinated by pollination and the importance of tiny creatures on our ecosystems. As many do, I turned first to honeybees. Becoming an intern for a beekeeping company in 2015, I began my relationship with bees working with hundreds of hives all over New England. As fascinating and wonderful as honeybees are, I knew I wanted to learn about all kinds of pollinators and took a break from beekeeping professionally to study wild pollinators in Cape Town, South Africa. There I spent months in the field observing an amazing diversity of bees, wasps, butterflies, beetles, moths, ants and birds that contribute to pollinating flowering plant species. I have since returned to the US and continued working in beekeeping, but have diverted more of my energy into working with the lesser known native pollinators that deserve our attention too! I have recently moved back to my home state of Maine and started In the Weeds Bees in the hopes of helping folks learn how to support some of the lesser known bee species in their backyards!