How I came to Bee

Have you ever felt like you have done something before?
You feel you know something, but can’t quite put your finger on why? I felt like this when I first got called by the bees.

I can’t even explain what caused the urge out of the sudden. At first I put it down to my childhood. After all my granddad was a beekeeper, so I was always around bees, assorted hive ware, honey and wax. His venture was an extension of the family carpentry business and we made and sold wooden hive ware, wax candles and honey. During the summer school holidays I helped making frames, gluing the parts together and stacking them to dry before boxing them for shipping.

As I grew up the memories faded, I moved out from home, got a job, partied, travelled - a lot - and later landed in New Zealand for good. I never really thought much of bees again. I didn’t even take much notice when my brother in law took up beekeeping as a hobby back in Germany. Then in early 2019, almost two years after my dad passed away, I was looking through stacks of documents and photos that I had stored away and found old beekeeping photos circa 1981.

I drove around various locations with granddad visiting his hives and checking them.
Often during harvest time collecting honey. I remember never being afraid of the bees. Granddad used to open hive lids in a cloud of bees only wearing a head veil and
quietly going about his business. Sometimes he wore no protective gear at all.

That’s when a surge of stored memories came back. The big extractor in the laundry, labelling honey jars and rolling wax candles. I helped mark queens in the hive and use the smoker. The taste of gooey honey comb and sticky propolis.
The next day I told my bewildered husband that I am getting bees. Just like that. I researched and opted for a rented hive, kind of like a honey subscription as I felt that was a safe option. I was excited like a kid on Christmas Eve when the hive arrived. They were tended to by a local beekeeper regularly and I got to keep some honey at the end of the season.

However, as the bees settled in I felt like something was missing. I observed them often and learned how they behaved, but I wanted to get in there and connect with the bees. I observed the beekeeper a few times as he checked the hive and the smell wafting from the hive was alluring. I remembered again - but not as a memory in my head. I smelled the hive deep in my cellular memory and I remember feeling a deep sense of calm and instant happiness.

I was bee-ing enchanted and whenever I smell the magical medicine in my hives the same happens all over again.
That day I knew that I had to bee-come closer and I obtained a hive from a beekeeper I knew through a colleague.

So on a warm September morning I drove out to Karaka to pickup my hive. I was excited, but as I drove back the fact that I had about 40,000 bees in the back of my car definitely elevated my adrenalin levels. Once the hive was positioned in the spot I chose for my apiary I opened the small entry gates and bees poured out into the sunshine. They kept pouring out and formed quite a cloud, but as I later leaned they were simply checking out their new location and calibrating their surroundings to establish their flight path. And so my journey with the bees began…