The Incredible World of the Honeybee
Lynn Smith is a diaconal minister, graduate of CCS, and beekeeper! We asked her to reflect on how bees made their way into her life.
What creature does not have a father, but does have a grandfather?
That would be a drone honeybee. He has a mother but no father. And he has a grandfather because his mother has a father.
Welcome to the absolutely fascinating world of honeybees!
Back in 2015, one of our sons asked if we’d be willing to go in with him to purchase a new type of hive called a FlowHive – a father and son in Australia had just developed this and since our son liked to support start-ups … Perhaps you have seen the FlowHive on Facebook – the pictures show that you just turn a crank and honey flows out of a tube. There’s a bit more to it than that, but it is true – you turn a crank and the honey flows out.
The hive arrived. And then in the spring of 2016, we acquired honeybees to populate it and took a course at a local bee supply shop – the instructor happened to be a congregation member of the church I was about to become student supply minister!
One hive became two the next year and then five the following year and within a few years there were a lot more. I found that my real interest was not the honey the bees produce, but developing and selling queen bees as well as nucleus colonies (4 frames of bees with a queen).
And, of course, educating others on the incredible world of the honeybee.
And of course, there’s that diaconal draw to gather people and create community, so in 2023 I reached out through the Ontario Women’s Beekeeping Network on Facebook and asked if there were other women beekeepers in the Peterborough area who would like to meet and talk about bees. I received several positive responses to my post, so we picked a date and a gathering spot and fourteen women beekeepers came together.
I love it! Few of the women knew any others in the group when we first met and now there are solid friendships and women get together to help one another with their bees. There are also women who join our group before they even get their first bees … and immediately they have a community to support them. We have a Facebook group and a messenger chat, which gets very busy sometimes with questions like, “This is happening! What do I do?”
Sometimes there’s pictures posted of two or three women who’ve gotten together to learn. It’s hard to explain the joy I feel when I see those pictures. A community of learning and care.
Last spring I had an order for 20 nucleus colonies, but I had had a very bad winter and my colonies were very weak. What a gift to be able to reach out to some of these women and ask for help filling the order. And we were able to do it – together!
I have had opportunities to speak at a few different churches and other organizations. It is very cool to be able to talk to congregations about the honeybee colony – one of the world’s few superorganisms – which when you get into it, ends up sounding a lot like Paul’s vision of the church in 1 Corinthians. We are individuals but all a part of the body of Christ. The bees are individuals, but act as one, making decisions based on the needs and health of the colony.
And when a hive swarms (nature’s way of creating another colony), they first form a bivouac, usually in a tree, and then about 200 scouts go off looking for new digs for the colony. They have a mental checklist and the more items checked off in a location they have found, the more enthusiast their waggle dance when they return. Other scouts who didn’t find such impressive accommodations, will check out this one and, essentially, the scouts end up deciding by consensus which new home they will all go to. (If you find this as fascinating as I do, you can read about it in Honeybee Democracy by Thomas D. Seeley.)
It’s an amazing sight when the colony all heads for the new home and move in – one we were so lucky to experience – standing close by, watching possibly 20,000 bees arrive and march into, in this case, a spare box I had set up.
Studies have shown that being around bees in very healthy for us; reduces stress, decreases anxiety and depression, and … okay not part of the study, but I can tell you – brings joy to your life.
If you have an opportunity, get to know a beekeeper and ask if you can spend a few hours with them sometime. Or … find a place that offers bee bed therapy as reported by CBC (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/bee-bed-therapy-and-anxiety-9.7303460)
How does my diaconal training influence my beekeeping? Drop by my place on the second Monday of the month and hear the chatter and excitement – sometimes as many as 14 women crammed into our kitchen, sharing, caring, laughing, and talking about honeybees. Then you’ll see.
