beekeeper

American  

[bee-kee-per] / ˈbiˌki pər /

noun

beekeepers plural

1. a person who raises honeybees; apiculturist.

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beekeeper British  

/ ˈbiːˌkiːpə /

noun

1. a person who keeps bees for their honey; apiarist

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• beekeeping
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• beekeepers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of beekeeper

First recorded in 1810–20; bee ¹ + keeper

Explanation

A beekeeper is someone who manages bee hives and extracts honey. If you see a person wearing a white jumpsuit and a hat with a veil — and they're covered in buzzing insects — it's probably a beekeeper. If you want to get really fancy, you can call a beekeeper an apiarist. Beekeepers manage apiaries, or networks of honey bee hives. They care for the hives, making sure they are an ideal environment for the bees to live and make honey. It's also the beekeeper's job to carefully extract honeycomb without harming the bees. Many people keep bees as a hobby, yielding just a little bit of honey each year.

Example Sentences

"It was a real cluster of bees, and probably there was a queen bee right in the middle," the urban beekeeper told France Info.

From BBC • Apr. 28, 2026

There are even bees and a beekeeper, who harvests honey for employees to take home.

From Barron's • Nov. 15, 2025

Teddy, a hobbyist beekeeper, opens the film alarmed that now the bees have disappeared, too.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 23, 2025

"There's not enough help," said Bartolo Quirino, a 42-year-old beekeeper.

From Barron's • Oct. 15, 2025

Along the walls were topsy-turvy shelves of cookbooks and books about the history of baking and how to be a beekeeper.

From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova