{"id":15515,"date":"2014-08-05T07:42:44","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T14:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?p=15515"},"modified":"2014-08-05T07:42:44","modified_gmt":"2014-08-05T14:42:44","slug":"beeing-compassionate-1-olympian-strives-for-bee-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/beeing-compassionate-1-olympian-strives-for-bee-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Bee\u2019ing Compassionate: 1 Olympian Strives for Bee Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"evergreen

Local bee activist, Heather Wood, recently created the non-profit business Urban Evergreen Bee Sanctuary to manufacture and distribute beehives locally.<\/p><\/div>\n

by Tali Haller<\/em><\/p>\n

Exuding passion and enthusiasm, local activist Heather Wood is buzzing about her newly-created non-profit business, the\u00a0Urban Evergreen Bee Sanctuary<\/a>. The organization builds hives that maximize bee happiness and then distributes them (at low cost) to community members. \u201cWe\u2019re essentially facilitating people\u2019s ability to interact with, shelter, and give love to bees,\u201d explained Wood. Their mission? To get hives to anyone who wants one, regardless of income. Their goal? To distribute at least 1,000 hives in the next few years.<\/p>\n

Obtaining a hive is simple: call and order. There is minimal maintenance. (\u201cThe bees know how to feed themselves,\u201d as Wood says.) Although actual bees aren\u2019t part of the order, the organization can help you obtain a wild swarm. If you order now, you can expect a hive by spring, right in time for bee season, which is typically April to August.<\/p>\n

\"beehive

he Urban Evergreen Bee Sanctuary stresses doing what\u2019s good for the bees, not what\u2019s easy or profitable.<\/p><\/div>\n

The cost of a bee hive varies. \u00a0However, Wood stresses that anyone who wants one will get one regardless of financial challenges. She\u2019s found that $350 covers the total cost. But because that is too steep for some, she is asking for extra donations from people who can afford it. This brings joy to my heart. It\u2019s great to see an organization that genuinely cares about the cause they\u2019re serving. As I see it, they\u2019re willing to find ways to leverage the financial aspect for the intangible gains of bee longevity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about the money or the honey,\u201d said Wood. \u201cIt\u2019s about providing shelter for the bees and learning from them. They\u2019ve been here for millions of years and they provide valuable ecological services.\u201d In fact, the economic value of bees\u2019 pollination services are\u00a0worth millions in low estimates<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0billions in high estimates.\u00a0<\/a>Clearly, they are worth protection.<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s not\u00a0about\u00a0<\/i>the honey. But beekeepers can still reap the benefits. According to Wood, someone could potentially get up to 50 pounds of honey. \u201cPeopleneed\u00a0<\/i>to leave the honey for bees to have during the winter and take it in the spring,\u201d she stresses. \u201cThat is really important. It\u2019s one of the main things that separates natural beekeeping, what we\u2019re doing, from conventional beekeeping.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"beehive

Volunteers Katherine Kirchoff and Katie Schneberg construct a beehive together.<\/p><\/div>\n

But what is the Urban Evergreen Bee Sanctuary doing differently? \u201cWe\u2019re building hives that are completely different in structure than conventional bee hives,\u201d said Wood.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s hives are horizontal boxes with floating top bars, meaning they can be spaced appropriately (the honey comb is narrower at the front, and wider at the back). There are also windows in the side, so that you can have a peek at how the hive is doing without causing any disruption to the bees. In conventional beekeeping, you generally have to take apart the hive to look inside and see what\u2019s going on. The design comes from\u00a0Corwin Bell,<\/a>\u00a0founder of Backyard Hive in Eldorado Springs, Colorado. He calls it the \u201cGolden Mean Hive.\u201d If interested, you can purchase designs directly from him for $10 and make a hive on your own.<\/p>\n

But the differences between Wood\u2019s version of natural beekeeping and conventional beekeeping go beyond structure. There are also differences in treatment. According to Wood, in conventional beekeeping, bees are transported around to different farms, where they\u2019re released to pollinate thousands of\u00a0the same\u00a0<\/i>flower or crop. However, both the transportation and the limited variety of crop are bad for the bees, who are used to living in the same place for hundreds of years as a colony and having access to all types of flowers.<\/p>\n

Conventional beekeeping also tries to keep bees from swarming (which is when a body of honeybees emigrates from a hive and flies off together, accompanied by a queen, to start a new colony). \u201cBut swarming is a natural and necessary process,\u201d said Wood. \u201cConventional beekeepers stop swarming because they want to protect their investment. They don\u2019t want their bees to get away,\u201d Wood explained. \u201cHowever, we need to let them swarm so that bees can stay genetically diverse and spread out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wood wants to honor their timing and respect the \u201chive mentality.\u201d \u201cThe colony is really like a body, each individual forgetting itself for the survival of the hive. They will literally feed each other before they feed themselves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Although bee season is relatively short (under 5 months), there is no offseason for the workers. Year-round they will be making beehives. \u201cWe\u2019re still working out all the kinks so we need as much help from the community as we can get,\u201d said Wood.<\/p>\n

Already, community donations, volunteerism, and interest is huge.\u00a0Olympic Glass<\/a>,\u00a0<\/b>located on the east side of Olympia, has agreed to give the Urban Evergreen Bee Sanctuary an incredible discount on 1,000 plexiglass windows for the bee hives. The Urban Evergreen Bee Sanctuary has also received a small grant from the\u00a0Thurston County Community Sustaining Fund,<\/a>\u00a0which was the money that initially got them started.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project has been such a loving experience so far. Everywhere we turn people want to help,\u201d Wood said with gratitude. However, to stay running, they need the community\u2019s continued support.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love more volunteers! They can make donations in money, time, or tools (we need everything from drills to screws, but we\u2019re especially in need of bigger tools, such as routing tables). What\u2019s more, volunteers with all sorts of skills are welcome \u2013 writers can craft grants, builders and people wanting to work with their hands can build hives, artists can create advertisements and help raise awareness.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in helping out or learning more, check out the\u00a0Urban Evergreen Bee Sanctuary Facebook page<\/a>, their\u00a0website<\/a>, or call up Heather Wood at 360. 551.0674.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Tali Haller Exuding passion and enthusiasm, local activist Heather Wood is buzzing about her newly-created non-profit business, the\u00a0Urban Evergreen Bee Sanctuary. The organization builds hives that maximize bee happiness and then distributes them (at low cost) to community members. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15516,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15515\/revisions\/15516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}