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DFW ABC Speakers 2026
Dr. Leo Sharashkin
Dr. Leo Sharashkin is a full-time natural beekeeper and founder of HorizontalHive.com, living on a forest homestead in the Missouri Ozarks. He manages several dozen horizontal (Layens-style) hives populated entirely with local wild swarms, with no sugar feeding or medication. Holding a PhD in Forestry from the University of Missouri, he is editor of the book Keeping Bees With a Smile and contributes to American Bee Journal and Bee Culture. Leo has given more than 500 talks on four continents and teaches natural beekeeping workshops, hive-building and swarm-trap construction at his apiary and around the country.
Affiliations: HorizontalHive.com (founder); University of Missouri (PhD Forestry); Indiana Univ. (MS Natural Resources)
Kevin Inglin
Kevin Inglin is a hobbyist beekeeper and EAS Master Beekeeper (certified 2019) from central New Jersey. Since 2010 he has produced The Beekeeper's Corner podcast, one of the longest-running beekeeping podcasts. He is a past president of the Northwest New Jersey Beekeepers Association, where he also serves as webmaster and YouTube administrator, and he runs Managed Mentoring, a program for new beekeepers. Kevin keeps a mix of hive types, including top-bar, Layens and Warré, and speaks at local, regional and state conferences, including Eastern Apicultural Society meetings and club talks across the Northeast.
Affiliations:Northwest NJ Beekeepers Assn. (past president); EAS Master Beekeeper; The Beekeeper’s Corner podcast; Managed Mentoring
Crissy Ward
Crissy Ward is a sideliner beekeeper in Abilene who started beekeeping in 2019 and founded Sadie Grace Farms LLC in 2022, a honeybee apiary, bee supply store and live bee removal/relocation business in south Taylor County that offers classes and private tours. She is president of the Big Country Beekeepers Association (16 counties) and a director on the Texas Beekeepers Association board. Crissy is enrolled in the Texas A&M AgriLife Texas Master Beekeeper Program and has completed the Advanced level. She is passionate about educating groups and kids and "spreading the good news of beekeeping."
Affiliations: Big Country Beekeepers Assn. (President); Texas Beekeepers Assn. (Director); Texas Master Beekeeper Program (Advanced level); Sadie Grace Farms LLC
Joe Lewis
Joe Lewis is a beekeeper who kept bees for eleven years as a sideliner in Bel Air, Maryland, before relocating to Wise County, Texas. He is the former owner of Harford Honey, retains an interest in Deer Creek Apiaries, and has written for the American Bee Journal, with articles including “Requeening a Drone Laying Colony.” Joe is known for his talk “Sustainable Beekeeping Through Nucleus Colonies” and his “Beekeeping 357” method of expanding colonies, and has spoken to clubs in Maryland and Texas. His talks aim to get beekeepers excited about making nucs and splits.
Affiliations: Harford Honey (MD; former owner, still a partner); Deer Creek Apiaries (MD; retains an interest); American Bee Journal (writer); Susquehanna Beekeepers Assn. (MD; hosts his articles); talks to clubs in Maryland and Texas (e.g., Central Maryland Beekeepers, Bridgeport TX Bee Club).
Rex Smith
Rex Smith is the owner of Harmony Hollow Apiaries in North Texas. Beekeeping for 16 years (14 of them full-time), he places and manages hives on 5–20 acre properties so landowners can qualify for Texas agricultural valuation, and also sells honey and bees. He is past president of the Texas Association of Professional Bee Removers and is in the Texas Master Beekeeper program. With Laura Winters he teaches Introduction to Beekeeping classes at Owenwood Farm in Dallas, and he has spoken to TVBA and at the Brazos Valley and Central Texas bee schools. In 2016 he taught beekeeping to farmers in India's Darjeeling region with ATREE.
Affiliations: Harmony Hollow Apiaries; TXAPBR (past president); Texas Master Beekeeper Program (participant); Owenwood Farm classes; ATREE (2016, India)
Michelle Boerst
Michelle Boerst of Aubrey, Texas is the first Texas Master Craftsman Beekeeper, the top level of the Texas A&M AgriLife Master Beekeeper Program, and sits on the Texas Master Beekeeping Board. She co-founded the Denton County Beekeepers Association in 2015 and served as its president, and has volunteered with Collin County and Texas Beekeepers Association, where she publishes the TBA Journal. She owns Bursting Bees (honey, bee rescue and mentoring), co-hosts the 2 Bee Or Not 2 Bee podcast, teaches classes at the UTA Environmental Training Institute, and is pursuing a Master's in Entomology at the University of Florida.
Affiliations: Denton County BA (co-founder, past president); Texas Beekeepers Assn.; Texas Master Beekeeper Program (Master Craftsman; board); Bursting Bees; UTA Environmental Training Institute; Univ. of Florida (MS Entomology)
Ryan Giesecke
Ryan Giesecke is a Texas Master Beekeeper that trained with the North Texas Master Naturalist program. Based in East Dallas, he owns G-Bar Naturals, an urban homestead project offering homegrown products and learning opportunities. Ryan performs bee-friendly removals of honey bees and bumble bees as Honey Bee Relocation Services. A past president of both Trinity Valley Beekeepers Association and Metro Beekeepers Association (Fort Worth), he is also president of the Texas Association of Professional Bee Removers. Ryan teaches beginner beekeeping classes, has taught bee classes at area colleges, and presents across Texas.
Affiliations: Trinity Valley BA (past president); Metro BA (past president); TXAPBR; Texas Master Beekeeper; North Texas Master Naturalists; G-Bar Naturals; Honey Bee Relocation Services
Shannan LaGrave
Shannon LaGrave is a Texas Master Beekeeper and a partner at Oak Cliff Bee Company in Dallas, where she leads education, training and apiary management ("Director of Buzz Operations"). The company provides corporate hive management, consulting and ag-exemption guidance, and she maintains hives for clients like the North Texas Food Bank, where she also teaches kids' camp lessons. Shannon began beekeeping as a youth in Collin County through the Collin County Hobby Beekeepers Association scholarship program and served as its 2013 Honey Queen and the 2014 Texas Honey Princess. She spoke on a bees-in-business panel at EarthX in 2026.
Affiliations: Oak Cliff Bee Company (partner); Texas Master Beekeeper Program; Collin County Hobby BA (youth scholarship graduate, past Honey Queen)
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk
Dr. Ferhat Ozturk is a medicinal-honey researcher and educator, Project Director of the HONEY Pathway, a USDA-funded program that trains students in beekeeping, honey lab analysis and entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Associate Professor of Biology at Sul Ross State University in Eagle Pass. His team has tested hundreds of Texas honey samples for antibacterial and antioxidant activity, aiming to identify U.S. honeys rivaling medical-grade Manuka. He holds a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology (Univ. of Nevada, Reno) and has been recognized by the American Beekeeping Federation as a medicinal honey expert.
Affiliations: HONEY Pathway (UTSA); Sul Ross State University; MDM Wound Ventures (CSO)
Laura Winters
Laura Winters is a North Texas beekeeper, gardener and educator. She owns Birds and the Bees Apiary in Garland and, with partner Rex Smith, helps manage hives for Texas agricultural valuation through Harmony Hollow Apiaries. Laura is Vice President of the Trinity Valley Beekeepers Association. She and Rex co-teach Introduction to Beekeeping classes and hands-on hive inspections at Owenwood Farm and Neighbor Space in Dallas (with Grow North Texas), and write the "Plant Talk" and pollinator-plant features in the Harmony Hollow newsletter.
Affiliations: Birds and the Bees Apiary (Garland); Harmony Hollow Apiaries; Trinity Valley BA (Vice President); Grow North Texas / Owenwood Farm
Chris Barnes
Chris Barnes is a beekeeper from Bryan, Texas, and co-owner, with his wife Dalene, of Cornerstone Honey Bees, which offers honey, live bee removals, nucs and hives, consulting and hive tours. He began beekeeping in 2013 and helped found the Brazos Valley Beekeepers Association, where he is a past president, current vice president and longtime Youth Program Director (teaching beekeeping to more than 100 teens). Chris serves on the board of the Texas Association of Professional Bee Removers, coordinates the Texas Beekeepers Association's club-website program, and regularly teaches new-beekeeper classes at Texas bee schools and club meetings.
Affiliations:Cornerstone Honey Bees (Bryan, TX); Brazos Valley BA (co-founder, past president, VP, Youth Program Director); TXAPBR (board); Texas Beekeepers Assn. (club-website program)
Ginger Cole
Ginger Cole is a Waxahachie beekeeper who, with her husband George, runs Hachie Honey, a home apiary selling raw local honey and offering beekeeping classes and guidance on the ag exemption. She took her first beekeeping classes in 2010 and typically keeps about seven to ten colonies. Ginger sits on the board of the Ellis County Rural Heritage Farm, where she directs the pollinator "seed ball" planting project, and has demonstrated bees at local events. She co-presented "Top Bars & Flow Hives" with Andrew Levi at the Trinity Valley Beekeepers Association's April 2026 meeting.
Affiliations: Hachie Honey / The Bee Space (Waxahachie); Ellis County Rural Heritage Farm (board);
Dr. Omar Martinez
Dr. Omar Martinez is an Extension Program Specialist II in apiculture with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service (Department of Entomology), based in Fort Worth. He has more than 25 years of beekeeping experience in Colombia, Brazil, New Zealand and the United States, and specializes in queen rearing, bee breeding and genetics, and beekeeper training. Omar holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in genetics from the University of São Paulo and a B.A. in animal science from the National University of Colombia. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Mississippi State University and worked for a commercial beekeeping operation in Vermont. He leads workshops, field demonstrations and hands-on training for Texas beekeepers.
Affiliations:Texas A&M AgriLife Extension (Entomology, Fort Worth); Univ. of São Paulo (PhD); National Univ. of Colombia (BA); Mississippi State (postdoc)
Kirby Jay Carmichael
Kirby Jay Carmichael is the owner of Rockwall Honey Bee Company (rockwallhoneybee.com) and president of the Trinity Valley Beekeepers Association in Dallas. An internationally-trained potter, former K-12 art teacher and art-education studio owner, he manages 300+ colonies for property owners, corporations and other beekeepers and is a professional bee remover also. Kirby is the North Texas representative on the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Apiculture Advisory Council, Education Director of the Texas Association of Professional Bee Removers, and Communications Director of the Collin County Hobby Beekeepers Association. He teaches hands-on and youth beekeeping education.
Affiliations: Rockwall Honey Bee Company; Trinity Valley BA (President); AgriLife Apiculture Advisory Council; TXAPBR (Education Director); Collin County Hobby BA (Communications)
Charlie Agar
Charlie Agar is the owner and beekeeper behind Charlie Bee Company in Seguin, Texas (formerly New Braunfels), where he does live bee removals, manages 100+ hives for ag-valuation leases and honey production, and teaches beginner classes at his teaching apiary and shop. A former newspaper reporter and travel writer, he started with one hive in 2013 and went full-time on a 25-acre homestead. Charlie favors local survivor stock and treatment-light, natural-leaning management. His work is featured in the PBS series Charlie Bee Company, now in its second season.
Affiliations:Charlie Bee Company (Seguin, TX); FrontRow Multimedia
Ed Veiseh
Ed Veiseh, known as "Cowboy Ed," is the owner of Ed's Bee Wrangling and Honey Farms in Wharton, Texas. He kept his first colony at age 12, began doing cut-outs and swarm captures in 2014, and went full-time in 2019. Ed manages more than 200 colonies on 23 farms and sits on the board of directors of the Texas Association of Professional Bee Removers (listed as Vice President on the 2023 board roster).
Affiliations: Ed’s Bee Wrangling and Honey Farms (Wharton, TX); Texas Assn. of Professional Bee Removers (board)
