Two summers ago, Steve, Mark and I visited Heather Swan and her backyard honeybees for the show we are re-airing this weekend, Loving Bees. Mark recorded the sound of the hive (with a very long mic), Steve interviewed Heather and I took photos and notes for a digital story. We all watched and heard how a beekeeper communicates with her bees.
Inspired by Heather and what we learned about the dwindling bee population, last summer my family planted a pollinator garden. And a few weeks ago, our bees arrived. They came by mail in a little yellow mesh bag inside of a box, some bursting out of their cocoons and buzzing around. The instructions said to refrigerate them for 15 minutes to lessen their anxiety. We have two bee houses in our backyard and are starting with leafcutter bees and mason bees. While these types of bees are super pollinators, I kind of think of them as starter bees before we full-on commit to honeybees.
Taking care of the bees has been a great distraction from everything else going on in the world. We’d love to hear your stories about bees, especially if you keep them. Email me at listen@ttbook.org.
–Shannon