‘23, the year of the bee
This year I fell in love with the honeybees.
I’ve been keeping bees in the garden since 2020, always one or two hives depending on the weather patterns and colony strength. But at the start of 2023 my beekeeping took a new approach: I stopped doing things by rote and instead went into a listening and feeling mode when close to them. At the time I was doing case studies for my Reiki II training, so for practise I also connected with them on an energetic level; really feeling the hum!
And when I listened, and saw what happened next, I realised my Queen bee had big ideas for me…
Starting the year I had one hive, which on the 10th May 2023, swarmed. Lucky for me, they landed in a bush right next to the hive... OK I thought, thank you, a new colony it is!
The very next day, the very same thing happened, landing in the same spot. It is unusual for this to happen twice on consecutive days, but again I thought (well, didn’t really have a choice!) thank you for the bees!
On the third day, I was sitting on the grass with my son after school and we watched the bees. ‘They’re going to go again, aren’t they’ I said, and he agreed ‘yep, they’re going to take off!’ - the bees were gathering in the sky above the garden, so, anticipating a third swarm, I opened the hive and removed the original Queen to make an artificial swarm in a new box.
What’s unusual about it all is it’s always the original Queen who leaves the hive during a swarm, but for us, she stayed put. This Queen, she wanted us to have bees. The bees needed me to listen, and to connect - you can feel them calling you, because they are a part of you, we are interdependent.
We are an essential part of the ecosystem and the bees want you to remember that.
All these bees… they made me wonder, what if the bees are not in need of saving, rather, in need of me? Just me, as I am, my interest and passion in them, communication with them. The bees, in their unity and service, show us again and again how to be part of the world. How we can bring positive change and reconnect to the essential part of ourselves that is Nature.
I love having these bees around me, and feeling in to the hum, yet I’m mindful of the impact on the native pollinators, aware of honeybee density. I did some deep research into sustainable beekeeping practices which I am committed to promote and live up to. Hopefully over the winter months I can find a suitable out-apiary site near North Berwick… any ideas or suggestions? I’d like a place I can host others - children, adults; individuals or in small groups - to feel and know this interdependence and connection with nature.
I know the honeybees have a lot to teach us. The Honeybee Sanctuary is here to make space for the honeybees to reveal and inspire while providing us with a conscious harvest of healing honey.
Here’s to the year of the bee.. for me, for you ♡
