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When I moved to Philo, in 2002, a hive of bees lived in what has come to be called The Bee House. It is an outbuilding that is used for storage and also housed the hive at the far left. Italian honey bees, purchased by the O'Briens who lived here before, flew in and out pollinating the existing fruit trees. These are sweet bees who have never stung anyone. I took, and take, no honey. It is enough for me that they simply pollinate.
Not much of a garden was here at that time. About seven untended apple trees and four grape plants, lots of junipers, tons of wild blackberries and ornamental hypericums had colonized the land. I bargained with the existing plants, allocating parcels where they were free to be wild, and began planting in the other places. And planting and planting. And what happens when you add lots of plants that bees love? They reproduce.
By 2004 a second hive was formed on the far left of The Bee House. By 2006 another hive moved to the neighbor's house.
This year the hive swarmed and was caught by late rains. The hive landed on the arbor leading to my house, in the perfect shape of a heart. My cat, Aralius Legalos, leaped to the top of the arbor to investigate and put his little nose about one inch away from the teeming mass of bees. I was worried, they were fine.
I questioned whether my garden could support another hive. I pondered this for quite a while as the hive remained on the arbor, waiting before moving into a new site. I determined that this hive should grace a new place. Knowing that the nearby community called Emerald Earth Sanctuary had recently lost their hive, I called Abeja, their beekeeper. Abeja came over with a bee box. We smoked them with white sage from my farm, sprayed them lightly with sugar water, thumped the hive and they fell into the box. We gave them time for stragglers to join the others, then Abeja put them in her car and transported them to Emerald Earth and then to her living roof.
I encourage all other beekeepers to keep at least one hive that just propogates and pollinates. I believe this is the way we will increase our bee population.
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