Jeff Harris
Jeff Harris is an associate extension and research professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology in Mississippi State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He teaches a First Year Experience course titled “All About Birds and Bees.” He credits his uncle with teaching him how to catch a swarm of bees in the mountains of his youth. Back home in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years after that first taste of honey, Harris caught his own swarm.
Jeff Harris found his first love in the Appalachian Mountains. He spent summers working on the family farm in Virginia where one of his uncles kept bees.
“I remember coming home with my bicycle in one hand and a branch with a bee swarm in the other. My mother was shocked, but my dad built a box to put the bees in and I’ve kept bees ever since,” he said.