12 Jun Blessed Bee Thy Name

By Beth Berube

Drones, workers, guards and queens. These words evoke images from a Dungeon and Dragons game. They are, in fact, names given to classify a being of the Apoidea family – having a hairy body, feeding on sweets; whoa…so far, Wikipedia is describing my husband. No, it also says that bees hardly stop working. What was I thinking?

Today, my bee consciousness was expanded when I met Daniel, a Pioneer Square apiarist. In my mind, honey hives should be perched under apple trees in an orchard or stacked up like vertical crates among fields of lavender.

Daniel Petrzelki works for Tether, a branding design agency on the fourth floor of the Burke Building in Occidental Park. He is also an urban bee keeper. We walk through a door and climb about forty stairs to the building’s roof. I am captivated by the view. The Smith Tower reaches out to me to the north and the blue waters of the Puget Sound seem just a stone’s throw away. But the most impressive view is three hives surrounded by a flurry of these clever and complicated creatures. They are buzzing to and fro in pollinator paths that resemble shipping lanes. Some of them are fanning their wings at the hive portal to keep it cool. Most of them are delivering pollen to make into honey.

I asked Daniel why the hive in the middle had so little activity. He explained that for an unknown reason, the bees in that hive died. Perhaps it was a virus in that hive that led to the colony collapse.

Daniel was the recipient of a grant called The Hive Project that propelled him to craft three hives from cedar (he is also a woodworker) last April. He now has about 20,000 bees collecting pollen in Pioneer Square in about a three-mile radius from their rooftop home.

Albert Einstein said if the bees die out, four years later, mankind will follow. As I write this, there is large scale death in the honeybee population. What is really scary is that scientists cannot pinpoint the exact cause for this devastation.

What WE can do to help sustain their population is to plant flowers and shrubs that bees love, such as zinnias and lovage. Google can help you do that. I planted Scarlett Runner beans on my deck and now Daniel’s bee friends buzz around my glass of Chablis like a swirling breeze. We get along fine. I think of them as my gardening companions. Be “pro- bee- active” when planting flowers in your garden that are purchased from stores like Home Depot or Lowes. Make sure that they were not sprayed with pesticides that are not bee friendly. Some types are toxic to bees.

You can find out more about the Hive Project here: The Hive Project. If you have any questions that you would like to ask Daniel, you can email him at Daniel@tetherinc.com.