The Bees

A lesson of reciprocity

PAST

Spending the majority of my life outdoors around horses and barns, cohabiting with various types of bees is inevitable. I have been stung many times in the past. Few would argue the unpleasantness of the experience of the actual sting, and in some cases stings along with the swelling, itchiness and pain. As a young teenager I was stung by a dozen or more yellow jackets after disturbing a ground nest clearing a trail with my coworkers at the riding stable where I worked as a trail guide. I felt like I was being beat up by someone I couldn’t see! I ran to my horse who was tied to an apple tree, undid the rope and flew up onto the saddle in what seemed like one motion. Slow and fast at the same time. We raced back to the barn. I heard the loud voices and thundering hooves of my coworkers on their horses close behind. We were at War with a battalion of soldiers each no bigger than a fingernail with a lethal sword on each ones tail. We not only lost the battle, but every one of us humans and our horses were victims. Ever since then my reaction to a bee sting of any kind is more inflammatory and takes longer to resolve. To say it was a lesson I would never forget is an understatement.

PRESENT

One late spring morning I took a hike to the Walhalla Rocks along the Schoharie Creek, a beautiful place in our valley, to be with Nature. I walked among a myriad of beautiful wild flowers under the large sycamore trees along the west bank of the creek with thousands of bees all around me in a place of oneness. During these walks I have learned about them in a deeper way. They helped me to melt away that 50-ish year old unpleasant memory. Generally our attacks from bees result due to our disconnect or unawareness. When we get task oriented we can loose sight of the non human neighbors who live with us. Their right to exist on Mother Earth is perhaps even more important than ours. They play an important part in the harmony of our ecosystem. This right has been and continues to be violated by ignorance, disrespect and fear. 

Every spring since I started taking those walks, I make an agreement or compact with the brown wasps, yellow jacket wasps and black mud wasps that wish to live in the barns and specifically the hay sections of the barns that I need to frequent on a daily basis. I acknowledge their life and medicine and ask that we exist in harmony and respect. Since I have set out to do this, I have not been stung or even threatened. I let them establish our buffer zone and pledge to honor it.

One spring I noticed a hornets nest being created in what we call the hay shed. It is a ground level storage area for storing large 1000 lb bales. Now hornets mean business when they aim to sting you and will hunt you down went trying to escape a boundary infraction. So before there was any display of ill intent, I sat in the barn on a small bale of hay and offered an agreement of cohabitation. 

Throughout the summer months we acknowledged each other in that space. Not once did either of us disrespected the agreement. 

As my hay supply began to wane it occurred to me that my hay supplier who will put the new hay in the barn, did not make this same agreement with the bees. I was troubled over this, not knowing what to do about it. We lived together peacefully all spring and summer and I did not want to hurt them to protect an individual. After all, he wasn’t part of the agreement.

In my morning meditations I asked the Great One and Spirit Elders what I should do. They instructed me to talk to them again. So, that morning, I asked them if they could possibly leave their nest as I did not want to harm them to protect someone who did not know them and did not have this agreement with them. 

Within days I saw a lot of activity around the nest, then it began to slow. For three days I saw no bees leaving or entering the nest. I searched for a thin stick and lightly touched it like a soft knock at the door. I did this three separate times and not one bee came out of the nest. I gently pulled the nest off the rafter and the top stayed attached revealing the inside of the nest. There was not a single bee inside the nest! Tears rolled down my cheeks. I have them now as I type.

FUTURE

Harmony and balance begins with a deliberate act of acceptance, honor and responsibility. Not everyone is able to do this. In my older age I am just learning things I should have known as a child. In the past I respected them with distance, and eliminated them when I was threatened…because of fear. All it took was to honor their right to share this space with us and an agreement. Perhaps my story will help you to honor the Bees. They may have a lesson for you too. 

To all our relations…