Michael S. Thompson is a

beekeeper A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees. Beekeepers are also called honey farmers, apiarists, or less commonly, apiculturists (both from the Latin '' apis'', bee; cf. apiary). The term beekeeper refers to a person who keeps honey bees i ...

in Chicago. Thompson was a contributor to ''Thing Magazine'' in the early 1990s. Thompson grew up in Wichita,

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

and became a bee-keeper when he was 12 years old, after his parents bought him a beehive. He moved to Chicago in 1968, and began beekeeping there in 1974. In 1975, he put a beehive on his roof in Chicago and was surprised at the amount of honey his

urban beekeeping Urban beekeeping is the practice of keeping bee colonies (hives) in towns and cities. It is also referred to as hobby beekeeping or backyard beekeeping. Bees from city apiaries are said to be "healthier and more productive than their country cou ...

produced. In the summer of 2004, Thompson worked with two other beekeepers to start the Chicago Honey Co-op, which is dedicated to provide healthy food, passing down bee-keeping knowledge, and employing the formerly incarcerated. In January 2013, Thompson held his first

class that was open to the public at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Michael S. 1948 births Living people American LGBT rights activists American beekeepers HIV/AIDS activists Writers from Springfield, Missouri People from Chicago