nee's bees

At the center of full circle sanctuary is earnest, heartfelt striving in service of the honeybee.  A species with whom we as humans once had the most beautiful relationship of mutual stewardship, who pollinates at least 1/3 of our food and now hovers on the brink of extinction, the honeybee has been honored for aeons for reasons ranging from the practical to the spiritual.  

While we search for the location for the physical sanctuary, we are blessed to be tending and learning from bees in a variety of landscapes and hive types.

Depending where you live, April - July is swarm season, which for Nee's Bees is always cause for celebration!  Conventional beekeeping strives to suppress swarms, but we see them as an important rejuvenative gesture that gives the old hive natural relief from mite pressure, and gives the new swarm a new place to live with a refreshed queen.  Swarms have about a 20% chance of survival without a beekeeper, so if you see a swarm, be sure to notify your local swarm collector!

We are striving to build a network of hives and appropriate bee forage, in order to establish a sort of "wildlife corridor" for restoratively tended honeybees.  If you have property that could support a hive, and especially if you're willing to establish some of it as a flowering landscape to feed bees, you could be an integral part of the solution!  

At the nee's bees facebook group, Neelima brings a day-in-the-life perspective when she's in the field, and samplings of the thoughts and ideologies that inform her practice at other times.  This was her first bee-discovery forum, and can be traced back to the early days of "Guys?  I think bees are asking me to be a beekeeper.  Help me find the most natural ways!"