An Interview with Matis Stebben, Founder of Beekeeping for Veterans

I was born in California and I grew up in San Diego.

I have been a beekeeper for seven years now. I got started because I heard that the bee population was in decline and I wanted to figure out if I could do something. I did some research on it, and figured, “yes, I can” and that’s how I started beekeeping.

There are so many aspects of beekeeping that fascinate me. One thing about me is that I love to be in nature and I love to connect to nature. And beekeeping brings me both aspects – being in nature and connecting to nature through the bees. I love just watching the bees go in and out of the hive, seeing the various colors of pollen. I love doing inspections to see how the bees are acting inside of their hive. I also love just the great rush of adrenaline that happens to me when I beekeep and I open up the hive. And it’s amazing just to connect to an insect. I never thought that would be possible, but once I started beekeeping, you really connect to your hive.

The idea for Beekeeping for Veterans happened approximately three years ago when I started a beekeeping program at a drug rehabilitation facility in Toronto, Canada. Once a week I would go and beekeep with recovering addicts. We put a beehive on their property at the drug rehabilitation center, and people loved it. People reported back to us that they felt calm when they beekeeped.

I had a veteran who did three tours, and for the first time since he got back, he didn’t hear ringing in his ears when he was beekeeping and he could hear his thoughts as he beekeeped. He had a total breakthrough.

So, based on that I thought maybe I could do something with this on a much grander and greater scale to help the betterment of society. After a long contemplation I figured this is something I want to do to help veterans, and not just veterans but anyone suffering from trauma – that through beekeeping, using beekeeping as a tool to bring inner calmness and hopefully help with healing from trauma.

So veterans that have begun beekeeping – they all say that they calm down. As a calming tool, they use the hive. It also helps with clarity. When they’re by the hive they have to be mentally clear in what they’re doing. And not only when they’re beekeeping. I’ve also had veterans tell me that just sitting next to their hive and watching the bees come in and out is highly soothing and calming as well.

Not only does it help the vet himself or herself, it also has a ripple effect on the whole family. Some veterans have told me that they now beekeep with their children or their spouse and that is a moment of bonding and family gathering around the hive. Also just with the emotional component, the mental health component, it also helps veterans with their personal lives and it helps better their lives and the loved ones around them as well.

Being a beekeeper and being close to the bees is a really humbling experience. There’s a lot of life lessons one can learn from the hive. Such as, the hive operates as a community. And sometimes I have to sit back and think “Am I serving my community? My nuclear community, meaning my family? And of course the general good and how do I give back?”

Also bees go through different stages in their life and in the last stage they’re independent and they go out there and fly around collecting nectar for the hive. And so sometimes I think, “How am I independent?” And, again my independence is there for the greater good.

I see this also in a soldier and a veteran who’s served their country. They’ve gone out there and now they’re coming back to the hive. And now it’s up to the hive, meaning the community, the country, to give back and help the veterans for their service