Do you ever go out to your hives and just sit there and watch them?
– Mery Molenaar
Blog
I didn’t know what it would be like
I’m still very nervous about the whole thing even though it’s completely fascinating and I’m definitely much more in awe than I could have understood I could be.
– Patricia Butler
Every year that I beekeep
Every year that I beekeep I come away with more awe for them. And every year I manipulate the hive less and less because I feel like they know what they’re doing.
– Suzanne Connolly Howes
Thornton, Colorado
Thornton Senior Center
5/18/12
Littleton, Massachusetts
Reuben Hoar Library
4/19/12
Frankfort, Kentucky
Bee Friendly Frankfort
Grand Theater
3/10/12
It’s just the way I am
I like to be active. My house is kind of picked up right now but I’ve got a box over there of flower stuff because I’m giving a flower program next week. I’ve got a box here and a box there. I’m just interested in a lot of things and always willing to learn.
– Marge McLellan
Where to get breaking bee news
For those of you following bee decline in the news I wholeheartedly recommend Tom’s Corner at BoulderCountyBeekeepers.org for direct links to new rumblings and studies before they break in the mainstream news.
Disclosure: Tom Theobald, the voice of Tom’s Corner, is a personal friend and the subject of my current documentary in progress.
Simply benevolent
I think they’re simply benevolent. You know, they’re just working, just like the rest of us.
– Julie Finley
Fun
I thought, “Oh, well that’ll be fun!”
– Marge McLellan
Attached
These worker bees work so hard and give up their lives in such a short period of time for this wonderful, golden, sweet honey that we love so much. I don’t know, I truly am emotionally attached to both my hives.
– Ruth Eastman
The beekeepers I know
Some people say that beekeepers are weird but I don’t think so. The beekeepers I know are actually all very different.
– Mery Molenaar
The other thing
The other thing that I find just amazing is how they can start from scratch and make twenty frames of comb in a matter of just weeks.
– Patricia Butler
They put me in my proper place
All these little tiny bundles of energy are just buzzing around and leaving the yard and I don’t have a clue where they’re going. I can’t follow them and see what six mile distance they’ve gone. But they come back to this home unerringly and bring this gift from the flowers back with them and they work so hard to do it that they just humble me.
– Suzanne Connolly Howes
Celebrating National Pollinator Week
See how we do it in Boulder, Colorado.
It’s fun, getting a swarm
I remember I picked up a swarm of bees over here in the neighborhood a couple of years ago… At night I had to come home dragging the garden cart with my bees suit on. My bee suit is made for a taller person than I am and the neighbors looked at me, they thought I was becoming senile, but I got my swarm of bees!
– Marge McLellan
Well, go get ‘em!
I heard this buzzing, this incredible sound in the air, and there were thousands of bees. I went, “Oh my gosh! They’ve swarmed out of the hive!” and just stood there watching them. I know I must have been crying because I thought of all the work it took (to move the feral colony into the hive) and now they’ve left in about thirty seconds… I called my friend Mark, my bee mentor, and told him what happened and he said, “Well, go get ‘em!”
– Ruth Eastman
I feel confident
I’ve been stung a couple of times and it just doesn’t feel good. But as long as I’m in my suit I feel confident and I don’t have a problem with them buzzing around me.
– Mery Molenaar
It’s your decision
There are a lot of different opinions and people will give you different advice… and that is in itself interesting. But ultimately, as an individual, you have to make the decision about what you’re going to do (with your bees).
– Patricia Butler
Lowell, Massachusetts
Pollination: Beyond the Garden
Brush Art Gallery and Studios
11/19/11