How I Got Stung

When I brought my first batch of honey bees home–the buzzing box headed for my backyard on a warm night in May–I was skeptical that my new hobby made any sense. Would my bees starve? Would they get sick? Would they annoy my neighbors?

Luckily, and by this point, I had been working part time for a bee removal company for a couple months, so I was somewhat seasoned by the job. And upon joining a local beekeepers club, I discovered both bees and urban beekeepers were multiplying in Prescott and the quad-city area. I also learned bees in a small backyard, such as mine, amongst the houses, schools and churches, have just as good a chance as anywhere else to thrive. Neighborhood trees, my giant Pyracantha bush, the neighbor's Russian Sage and any overgrown yards provide enough nectar and pollen–not to just sustain my bees throughout this summer season–but to score me some of their surplus honey!

My closest neighbors hardly noticed how busy the hive situated only 60 feet from their house became, even after I added a honey super (where the bees but the honey as opposed to eggs). In fact, they welcomed my bees when I first told them about it. They were only reminded again of my hive with a gift of bee goodness (honey) I gave them across the fence on Tuesday.

Jumping back to my bee removal job, I get asked a lot: “How did I decide to do this type of work?” Truth be told, there was no “Eureka!” moment, but I believe the Universe must have been dropping seeds here and there, starting with a home exchange I did in Sweden last fall 2014. My friends there were beekeepers, foodies and artists, and owned an art gallery called Honey Gallery in Bromma, Stockholms Lan. The apartment I lived in was next to allotment gardens, which I strolled through most days to appreciate the precious undiscovered glory that is life: birds, bees, moths, butterflies, flowers, apple trees, wild deer and the people that nurtured it.

Another invisible seed was dropped early 2015 while visiting the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension office armed with a couple gardening questions. They gave me a local beekeepers and master gardener's business card and said to call them. So I called Cliff, and he and his wife, Nancy, invited me to their property in Prescott Valley for a show-n-tell. I cannot remember now how the conversation went, but Cliff and I got into bee suits and headed out to the yard where all the hive boxes where buzzing and see how comfortable I was handling frames full of bees, honeycomb and honey. I was comfortable, and so I had to know more...

Things started to really change when I found myself casually interviewing for a job with Cliff's company, Last Shadow Apiary, in his kitchen that I had no plans for. But life as it so happens, has a funny way of sometimes bringing the right path to you even if you are too oblivious to head down it on your own. After apprenticing on four bee removal calls end of February/March, it was in April that I signed a contract with Cliff and started getting calls to remove and relocate bee swarms and hives from water boxes on my own. I travel all around Prescott, and the quad-city area, performing this noble service. I have my own bee suit and all the necessary equipment needed to capture/remove the bees kept in the back of my car. I can feel the spirits of generations of bees emanating a loud buzz as I drive down the road and turn them over to Cliff's. He keeps as many batches of bees as possible and puts them into vertical stacking hive boxes in his bee yard and then re-queens them so they are less aggressive (long story short).

I had never understood just how interesting bees were, but through Cliff's generosity and sharing his life-long knowledge of bees that I learned the ins and outs of keeping a bee hive, honey bee anatomy, procuring a new queen and how to handle her, and the most exciting part to me at this stage: harvesting the honey. What I revel in most now is located under a native Juniper tree in dappled light in my own backyard: the opportunity I have took for myself to have my own hive of honey bees for real! I wanted more than just an occasional purchase of agave nectar I was using for my various baking projects; I deeply desired the real deal with all it's fantastic nutrients from live cultures: the pollen, bee bread, honey in the wax, and the raw honey itself. Luckily, it has all been successful, as I continue to feel at ease working outdoors, being connected to the natural world in this special way and having a real sense of home in Prescott. Bees are such magical creatures that they do so much for us and ask for so little in return.

Looking ahead at 2016, I might expand my home apiary to 2 hives and maybe start to offer hive setup and management for other people too: restaurants, animal sanctuaries, urban farms, ranches and even a bee yard on the Prescott-Yavapai Indian reservation—why not? While putting a “maybe” and an “I might” in front of this last sentence, I find myself evolving as I go along trying to decide what works best in the context of my lifestyle and for the bees. It is also my hope that after you've read this (and maybe other parts of my blog) that you'll grow confident in your own wild and crazy plans like I did! Love, Sharon

Lily Pads

Since discovering the Diana-photo-inspired look, my end of the month posts are bound to feature more photos than words from me. There are so many images to chase… I was feeling giddy when, thankfully, in a moment of downtime this weekend, I reconnected with an exquisite quote from one of my favorite authors. “My coming of faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another. Like lily pads, round and green those places summoned and held me while I grew. Each prepared me to the next leaf on which I would land, and this way I moved across the swamp of doubt and fear. When I look back at these early resting places — I can see how flimsy and indirect a path they made. Yet each step brought me closer to the verdant pad of faith in which somehow I afloat today.” ::Anne Lamott::

I have observed that in my life, despite the rush and angst to make things happen, I've never been able to suddenly leap either. My path has actually been quite wobbly and accidental. It is good to recognize though, that no matter how many steps I took and in which direction I went, these steps sure led me to extraordinary places. So, whatever the future may bring, here is a unique end of the month opportunity: Let’s just rest in our accomplishments and be held by their support as we approach the end of another phase and, soon, end of the year.

Here are my personal “lily pads” I want to share with you:
First is the successfulness of this home exchange I am on. I feel both humbled and honored to be accepted into these beautiful countries (Denmark and Sweden) and these strangers' homes without having met in person before, to experience a place in their precious homes and also in the neighborhoods (Thank you Michael, Madeleine and Lars). It all sounds so easy, however, new friends didn't come "included" with either exchange location, and so I worked very hard at building a temporary life that included people. It has made me more friendly and outgoing, eager to meet and befriend new people and seek out as many opportunities as possible. Whether this meant small things such as going for picnics, asking a neighbor to come out for lunch with me, or finding and eating at different cafés, kayaking or taking bike trips across the city. These all represented the kinds of things I always wanted to do in Prescott, Az, but never got around to right before I left.


Finally, to complete the home exchange with even more joy, I will be going to Estonia by boat for a quick 24-hour trip with 2 other friends (1 seat still left in the cabin!) Love, Sharon :D