By Kelsey Archer
Many students spend their spare time working typical jobs at the mall or at area restaurants, but UNO student Patrick Day is intrigued by a different task that makes working fun.
For the past few years, Day has worked for an area honey farm, collecting hives and making the final product — honey.
“It’s kind of an extension from when I was younger,” Day says. “I studied insects and bugs and how they lived.”
Boy Scouts added to Day’s interest when he received his first merit badge for following a beekeeper around for a day. After this experience, Day’s interested in bees blossomed.
As Day reminisces about his Boy Scouting days, he puts his hand to his beard and says, “I was like, ahhh … bee-keeping.”
Soon after Day’s experience shadowing the beekeeper, he decided he wanted a job in honey-making because the process was intriguing.
Although one would expect a typical computer science major to have different interests, Day says this hobby adds variety to his life.
Day’s favorite part is preparing the comb to extract and watching it come out.
“Actually, it says not to open the machine while extracting, but I do,” Day says with a mischievous grin.
Since Day’s job is more unusual than most, he prepared a speech for his speech class to inform the audience exactly how honey is made.
“Usually with bee-keeping it’s less common, so people ask questions,” Day says.
In addition to making honey, Day also enjoys learning more about the topic and the final product.
“When I read current magazine articles and learn new things, it’s interesting because I’m learning more about bees,” Day says. ” I like reading scientific articles about new things they discover, genetic work they are doing, or ways to improve honey production.”
One day, the honey-making industry will lose Day’s total dedication — he does not plan to devote his life to it. Still, he says in the future he would still like to find time to participate in the craft.
