Bees

I never had much interest in bees, to be honest. I knew they did good work and were declining in numbers and I did my best to restrain from swatting them away and if they came in the house I'd catch and release them outside. That was it, I'm embarrassed to say. When we moved to our little farm, a friend mentioned her dream of beekeeping and the next thing we were researching and ordering our bees. We have 2 hives in the back corner of the field and it only took 5 minutes of having them there to get me hooked!! I could sit and watch them all day. I've planted bee favoured plants and waited until the dandelions seeded before cutting the grass so they could benefit from the early pollen. I've watched them arriving at the hive with pollen of yellow, orange, white and most recently, bright red. I've watched them working gathering pollen. I've watched them fight off intruders at the hive entrance, bring out their dead bees and tenderly nestle them in the grass. Inspecting the hives is a whole other level of fascination. The volume of buzzing is incredible, the activity inside is so purposeful. I've seen capped brood, larvae wriggling, honey glistening and assorted colours of pollen neatly deposited like a version of connect four. I've tasted their honey and I've thanked them for their work. 

I am a beekeeper

I am hooked on bees

Ways to help bees:

Don't kill them!

Plant things they enjoy (see below)

Consider leaving some 'weeds' they seem to be attracted to.

Become a beekeeper!