What The Rivals of Amziah King Gets Right about Beekeeping.

It isn’t often that beekeepers (like me) get to sit in a movie theater and see our world become an important part of the story. Bees usually appear briefly on screen, a few hives beside a farmhouse, someone wearing a suspiciously clean bee suit, a highly trained deadly assassin that keeps bees or a jar of honey sitting on a kitchen table. The Rivals of Amziah King takes a very different approach. Beekeeping, honey production and the community surrounding them are woven into the life of the film, and for those of us who spend much of the year thinking about queens, brood, honey flows, swarms and Varroa mites, it is pretty entertaining to watch.

Part of what makes it work is that the filmmakers took beekeeping seriously. Adam Hickman and Foxhound Bee Company in Alabama served as beekeeping consultants for the film, with Hickman working as a lead beekeeper and on-set consultant. I'm writing this part on what I've read about the making of the film. I have no other connection to Adam or Foxhound except for LOFTY admiration! Foxhound assembled a team of experienced Alabama beekeepers who helped train the actors, provided equipment, prepared colonies and worked with the production on scenes involving bees and beekeeping. The filmmakers used live honey bees rather than simply relying on CGI, and Foxhound's team helped make sure the hive equipment, bee yards and honey-processing scenes felt like places where people actually work.

Beekeepers tend to notice those details. We know how quickly a movie can lose us when someone handles a frame strangely or when equipment is being used in a way that makes absolutely no sense. The Rivals of Amziah King is still a movie, not a beekeeping documentary, and some scenes are naturally designed for drama. Even so, there is enough authenticity underneath them that experienced beekeepers will recognize much of the world being portrayed. Some of the movie's most memorable bee sequences were created using real colonies and actual bee behavior under the supervision of beekeepers. They look effortless on screen, but there was a great deal of experience, preparation and bee management happening just outside the camera frame.

Beekeeping Is Already a Pretty Good Story

Perhaps that is why beekeeping works so well as part of the film. A honey bee colony already contains many of the things storytellers spend their careers trying to capture: cooperation, conflict, survival, change and community. Anyone who has kept bees for very long knows how quickly the story inside a hive can change. You can inspect a colony one weekend and return seven days later to find something completely different. A queen disappears. A colony begins preparing to swarm. A nectar flow suddenly fills the supers and bees become honey bound. One hive is thriving while another colony only a few feet away is struggling.

Eventually, beekeeping teaches you that managing bees isn't really about controlling them. Much of it is learning to observe what they are doing, understand why they may be doing it and decide when you should intervene and when you should simply add more supers to the hive. There are an incredible number of stories happening inside a bee yard, which makes it fun to finally see some of that world translated to a movie screen (Nice try Jason Statham).

Why a Movie Like This Is Good for Beekeeping

There is also real value in having a film introduce millions of people to beekeeping through a story rather than a textbook. Beekeepers spend a lot of time trying to educate people through classes, demonstrations, books, social media and conversations across farmers-market tables. Those things are important, but a good story reaches people differently.

Someone who has never thought seriously about honey production may suddenly see frames being handled, honey being extracted and colonies being managed as part of the lives of the characters they are watching. The next time that person sees a row of hive boxes beside a Wisconsin farm field, they may look at them a little differently. They might wonder what is happening inside those boxes, how honey gets from a flower into a bottle, or why one honey can taste completely different from another.

That kind of curiosity is good for beekeeping. It helps people understand that honey doesn't simply appear in a plastic bear at the grocery store. Behind every harvest are flowers, weather, agriculture, bees and a beekeeper making decisions throughout the season. If The Rivals of Amziah King gets more people interested in that story, that's something worth celebrating.

Just Don't Buy the Bees Tomorrow

Of course, there is another side to all that enthusiasm. Beekeeping has a funny ability to turn curiosity into an expensive shopping cart very quickly. You watch someone open a hive, see thousands of bees moving across a frame and taste honey straight from the comb, and suddenly you're researching hive bodies, smokers, bee suits, packages of bees and extractors during a midnight shopping spree on Dadant.com.

The excitement is great. The impulse purchase may not be.

Beekeeping is a wonderful hobby, but it is also a commitment to caring for livestock. Colonies require attention throughout the season (there is nothing better then loosing hives in a Wisconsin winter j/k), and successful beekeeping means learning about bee biology, nutrition, swarming, winter preparation, pests and diseases, especially Varroa mites. Equipment costs add up as well. A couple of colonies, protective gear, hive tools, replacement boxes and eventually honey-processing equipment can turn what sounded like a simple backyard hobby into a significant investment.

If the movie makes you want to keep bees, lean into that enthusiasm, but start with learning rather than buying. Find a local beekeeping association. Take a beginner class. Spend some time in an apiary with an experienced beekeeper. Learn what a healthy colony looks like and understand Varroa management before you have bees depending on you to figure it out.

You can spend an entire season learning about bees before owning a colony, and there is nothing wrong with that. You also don't need to become a beekeeper to become more connected to the world of pollinators. Plant native flowers, provide habitat for native bees, reduce unnecessary pesticide use, learn about the pollinators around you and support the beekeepers producing honey in your community.

Maybe the movie eventually leads you to your first two hives. Maybe it simply makes you appreciate the jar of honey sitting on your breakfast table a little more. Either one is a pretty good outcome. That is what makes The Rivals of Amziah King exciting for beekeepers. It isn't that Hollywood suddenly made our job look cool, and it certainly isn't an invitation for everyone leaving the theater to spend thousands of dollars becoming a beekeeper. It is exciting because someone looked at bee yards, honey houses, queens, swarms, beekeepers and the communities around them and decided there was a story worth telling.

I happen to agree.

A movie can't teach someone how to become a beekeeper. It can, however, make someone curious enough to start asking questions. Sometimes that's exactly what a good story is supposed to do.