She Said

Quotes Notes and Outtakes…

…from the Sister Bee beekeepers plus director’s notes by Laura Tyler. Updated weekly. Your comments are welcome.

There’s a FREE screening of SISTER BEE happening this Thursday, April 25th, 7:00 PM at Silver Sage Community House, 1650 Yellow Pine Avenue, Boulder, CO. Email me to RSVP if you think you’d like to attend.

Friend of Sister Bee Tom Theobald has been named as a plaintiff in today’s lawsuit against the EPA. Read the press release on Tom’s Corner.

Full disclosure: Tom Theobald, the voice of Tom’s Corner, is a personal friend and the subject of my current documentary in progress.

There’s just a kind of magic around the queen. She’s like the holy mother, right? If she’s not well then nothing is well in that world.

- Julie Finley

Part of my love is is that I love the woodworking, working in my wood shop and just … working!

- Ruth Eastman

My son was due in February and the wood for my first hives came in January so I was getting pretty big. And I was getting nervous because I wanted the wood part done before my son was born … So I said (to my husband), “You need to help me.” I really wanted to do it myself. But I needed some help, so we divided it up.

- Mery Molenaar

I play with a chamber group that has some flutes, cellos and violas as well as violins and a harpsichord … There’s this amazing sense of unity when everybody plays together … I think I just feel a little bit transported and I can’t describe anymore clearly what that means.

- Patricia Butler

My goal for this year is to get that one hive looking like it’s solid and strong again and setting them up so they’re in good shape for the winter. I’m not thinking I’m going to get very much honey.

- Suzanne Connolly Howes

If it were warm I’d go out there but it’s too cold to check the bees today.

- Marge McLellan

September 27th marks the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s, Silent Spring. Look for my review of the environmental classic in the September 2012 issue of Bee Culture.

- Laura Tyler, Director

Sometimes I’ve opened the box and known, “oh, that’s a virgin queen.” Then I feel like I’m intruding. If you make a mistake right then and squish the wrong bee, it’s all over.

- Julie Finley

I’d like to be a part of getting other people excited about having bees … or anything that has to do with beekeeping. Because I had so much wonderful help from other people.

- Ruth Eastman

Do you ever go out to your hives and just sit there and watch them?

- Mery Molenaar

I’m still very nervous about the whole thing even though it’s completely fascinating and I’m definitely much more in awe than I could have understood I could be.

- Patricia Butler

Every year that I beekeep I come away with more awe for them. And every year I manipulate the hive less and less because I feel like they know what they’re doing.

- Suzanne Connolly Howes

I like to be active. My house is kind of picked up right now but I’ve got a box over there of flower stuff because I’m giving a flower program next week. I’ve got a box here and a box there. I’m just interested in a lot of things and always willing to learn.

- Marge McLellan

For those of you following bee mortality in the news I wholeheartedly recommend Tom’s Corner at BoulderCountyBeekeepers.org for direct links to new rumblings and studies before they break in the mainstream news.

Full disclosure: Tom Theobald, the voice of Tom’s Corner, is a personal friend and the subject of my current documentary in progress.

I think they’re simply benevolent. You know, they’re just working, just like the rest of us.

- Julie Finley

I thought, “Oh, well that’ll be fun!”

- Marge McLellan

These worker bees work so hard and give up their lives in such a short period of time for this wonderful, golden, sweet honey that we love so much. I don’t know, I truly am emotionally attached to both my hives.

- Ruth Eastman

Some people say that beekeepers are weird but I don’t think so. The beekeepers I know are actually all very different.

- Mery Molenaar

The other thing that I find just amazing is how they can start from scratch and make twenty frames of comb in a matter of just weeks.

- Patricia Butler

All these little tiny bundles of energy are just buzzing around and leaving the yard and I don’t have a clue where they’re going. I can’t follow them and see what six mile distance they’ve gone. But they come back to this home unerringly and bring this gift from the flowers back with them and they work so hard to do it that they just humble me.

- Suzanne Connolly Howes

See how we do it in Boulder, Colorado.

A collaboration between myself, Coalition4Bees and Alchemy of Movement Dance Studio.

I remember I picked up a swarm of bees over here in the neighborhood a couple of years ago… At night I had to come home dragging the garden cart with my bees suit on. My bee suit is made for a taller person than I am and the neighbors looked at me, they thought I was becoming senile, but I got my swarm of bees!

- Marge McLellan

I heard this buzzing, this incredible sound in the air, and there were thousands of bees. I went, “Oh my gosh! They’ve swarmed out of the hive!” and just stood there watching them. I know I must have been crying because I thought of all the work it took (to move the feral colony into the hive) and now they’ve left in about thirty seconds… I called my friend Mark, my bee mentor, and told him what happened and he said, “Well, go get ‘em!”

- Ruth Eastman

I’ve been stung a couple of times and it just doesn’t feel good. But as long as I’m in my suit I feel confident and I don’t have a problem with them buzzing around me.

- Mery Molenaar

There are a lot of different opinions and people will give you different advice… and that is in itself interesting. But ultimately, as an individual, you have to make the decision about what you’re going to do (with your bees).

- Patricia Butler

During the spring and summer the queen lays up to 2000 eggs a day. It’s just mind boggling that an animal that is born with all the eggs she’s going to lay in her life can lay 2000 eggs a day and can live for five years! I mean, that’s a huge, massive amount of eggs! There are just so many things like that about bees and each little piece of information like that just blows my mind.

- Suzanne Connolly Howes

I’m a gardener. I’m not so much into flowers but I’m into vegetables and things that I can eat… That’s my small contribution… Raising my own food, not using sprays, trying to conserve on gasoline and heat and energy right here.

- Marge McLellan

You’re invited to become a friend of Sister Bee on Facebook.

Let’s say the creator is a beautiful mother. She doesn’t love one of her babies more than the next one, right? She loves them differently, maybe. But she loves them equally. And, you know, we can imagine any kind of creator we want… So from my world view I guess that just because we’re human doesn’t mean we have any more of God’s love than that butterfly that just went by. He loves us all the same. Or she loves us all the same.

- Julie Finley

It appeals to me, to be outside working the bees and watching them.

- Ruth Eastman

The National Honeybee Advisory Board has asked the EPA to remove the popular pesticide clothianidin (also known as Poncho) from the market based on a leaked agency memo that discloses flawed research. You can read the full press release here.

Sometimes I go out there and sit by myself with my son and watch the bees bringing in their pollen and flying in and out… It’s always nice to be around animals. I want my children to grow up around animals and this is just the beginning of that.

- Mery Molenaar

I tend to be able to get things done in a hurry, and that works for me, but beekeeping is an activity that I think is going to teach me patience because otherwise you just waste time.

- Patricia Butler

More honey, honey, honey, honey, honey…

- Suzanne Connolly Howes

The more you know about it don’t you think you like it more?

- Marge McLellan

An experience of the environment is something people look for on the weekend on their mountain bike or doing extreme kayaking or whatever. I just realized, for myself, that I need to experience the environment every day. So coming to the garden is how I decided to make that fit into my life.

- Julie Finley

Marjorie McLellan, the older beekeeper in Sister Bee, passed away on Friday, July 16th.

“You know, you reach a time in your life when you’re not trying to impress. You just want to get along.” – Marge McLellan

The above quote is one I treasure from Sister Bee. It’s a tricky one that I didn’t get at first though did feel it was important when Marge first said it because she shifted her tone markedly from lighthearted self-deprecation to solemnity. My first thought was that it had something to do with resignation and the giving up or softening of one’s opinions/principles/stridency with age. Today I feel differently. I think she was talking about an opening that comes with maturity. When we’re young we have so much to prove! But as we age and gain confidence it’s possible to take a break from “trying to impress” to listen and appreciate what others have to say.

Marge McLellan using the uncapping knife on a frame of honey

Marge McLellan modeled graceful aging for me. She was a dear friend and mentor to many. I miss her already.

- Laura

Marge McLellan walking with her garden cart

“Tonight is Midsummer Night’s Eve, also called St. John’s Eve. St. John is the patron saint of beekeepers. It’s a time when the hives are full of honey. The full moon that occurs this month was called the Mead Moon, because honey was fermented to make mead. That’s where the word “honeymoon” comes from, because it’s also a time for lovers. An old Swedish proverb says, ‘Midsummer Night is not long but it sets many cradles rocking.’”

- The Writer’s Almanac

Somebody said to me one time, “You do massage, why in the world would you do woodworking? What if you cut off your finger or hand or something?” To me, doing massage, doing woodworking, and when I stop and think about it, working with the bees… I’m working with my hands. I’m physically involved as well as emotionally involved. It makes total sense to me that I’m engrossed in all three of those things…

I love the woodworking part (of beekeeping).

- Ruth Eastman

Learn beekeeping from Sister Bee beekeeper Julie Finley. Register and find out more at Growing Gardens of Boulder County. Highly recommended.

- Laura

I’ve always been interested in nature and this is just a great way of being together with animals. They’re pretty easy pets. They’re really easy pets, actually. And you have a lot of them.

- Mery Molenaar

One of the things I think I’ll learn from this hobby is more patience. I just want to do it right and there doesn’t seem to be an easy way! It takes experience and exposure and patience.

- Patricia Butler

Half the time I go in there, I don’t know what they’re doing. I don’t know if I’m reading them right. But I know they know what they’re doing. It’s very clear.

- Suzanne Connolly Howes

Maybe, now that I think about it, there’s something spiritual about being out there with those bees… You really see there’s something controlling things, you know. And they’re alive! That’s my definition of spirituality, to be alive and get involved. You sense that in nature, don’t you?

- Marge McLellan

It’s like church in there isn’t it? I mean, it’s sacred in there. I guess, for me, in a box of bees, you don’t have to explain yourself. You don’t have to understand everything that’s going on. Everything they do eventually makes sense even if I don’t understand it at the time. All of that to me is feminine.

- Julie Finley

It seems like I should be able to have friendlier bees, but sometimes they’re not.

- Ruth Eastman

When a bee comes back to the hive she doesn’t put the honey in the comb herself, she gives it to somebody else, then another bee will process it or put it away. They share things. They live together. They’re helping each other.

- Mery Molenaar

A friend once said it takes a year or two for people to decide whether or not to stick with beekeeping. For some people it’s too much work. Other people get hooked. I’m definitely hooked.

- Patricia Butler

I don’t sell my honey. I give it to my friends and family and the people who love it are the ones who get the most. I love giving away honey to people who really appreciate it.

- Suzanne Connolly Howes

When I first started keeping bees I was giving honey away. I got the feeling after a year or so that I’d walk into a room and people would say, “Oh, here she comes with her honey.” So I decided I’m not going to do that anymore and started charging for it. As soon as I started charging, “Oh! Where’s your honey?” I don’t know why humans are that way but they are. If you charge a little tiny bit for it, they want it.

– Marge McLellan

Oh, jeez, look at all this honey!

- Julie Finley

It’s like entering a different world.

- Ruth Eastman

The most intriguing thing about bees for me is the way they communicate with one another. The way they build their comb, the hexagonal shape, it’s fascinating how well they work together. It’s a really determined, direct way of living.

- Mery Molenaar

There’s a nice Sister Bee thread on the beekeeping forum, Beesource. Includes commentary about Sister Bee being an all women production.

- Laura

What I’ve found expecially interesting and difficult is just understanding the bees, beginning to become comfortable with their rhythms and of course, having them comfortable with me, things you can’t really teach. There’s a great deal of this activity that you simply have to experience.

- Patricia Butler

It’s funny how many beekeepers I’ve met and talked to recently who don’t actually eat very much honey. And I don’t eat very much honey.

My whole reason for bees is more because I love bees and I want to have a place for them and I love having them in my backyard. I just love… I LOVE calling myself a beekeeper… So I don’t need to be really aggressive about having a huge harvest from them.

- Suzanne Connolly Howes

It’s just wonderful to see them! When I take the cover off the hive I’m just fascinated to watch them go about their jobs, working so hard. They know exactly what to do.

– Marge McLellan

When you take the lid off of that box there’s a kind of benevolence that comes from it… you know, just the amount of food they make, their generosity… is really kind of astounding. They’re just so sisterly and I think that really comes through in their work and in their presence and in their energy.

- Julie Finley

It’s a slow speed. You don’t answer the phone. You don’t do anything else while you’re with them. You just get lost, I mean hours… I can be with those bees for three or four hours, come in and realize I missed lunch, it’s three hours later, but I don’t care!

- Ruth Eastman

The Sister Bee trailer is now available on YouTube! I hope this is helpful for those of you unable to view the QuickTime movie on the home page. You’re warmly invited to pass it on to your friends.

Thank you.

- Laura

This spring our pussy willow was blooming and it was covered, completely covered with bees… And it was beautiful. At that point they were so busy getting the pollen… that they weren’t bothering me at all. It’s different from being in the hive. If you open up their hive they can get made at you. They’ll buzz around you and try and bug you to get you out of there. But when you’re right next to a tree with a lot of bees they’re so busy doing their work that they don’t bother you at all.

- Mery Molenaar

Some of the hardest lessons, the best lessons, have come from making dumb mistakes.

- Patricia Butler

I didn’t know anything about bees and I was scared about getting stung because as a kid I had kicked a yellow jacket nest and I had gotten probably a hundred stings on my body. I was actually really nervous about getting in and working them the first time because I didn’t know what they would do. I wore two pairs of pants, a long turtleneck, another shirt and then the suit and I died because I was really hot!

But I didn’t get stung. And I got fascinated looking at them.

- Suzanne Connolly Howes

I’m a beekeeper. Um hmm… The bees keep me.

– Marge McLellan

I’m a gardener. I came to the bees from the garden, you know, just wanted to know more about pollination. I don’t ever remember not wanting to keep bees.

- Julie Finley

My dad was a beekeeper. He had been a beekeeper way before I was born and still kept bees as I was growing up. I remember bees in the backyard because I remember being stung once. I put a bouquet of flowers in my pocket and got stung. It was pretty painful but it always stuck with me.

- Ruth Eastman

It’s wonderful to see… life!

- Mery Molenaar

I’ve always been interested in bees as pollinators, but when we lived in the city I didn’t think I had to worry that much about them. When we moved out here it was my intention to plant fruit trees. So in the back of my mind I thought it would be important to keep bees.

- Patricia Butler