When All Else Fails... Make Friends with Nature (PART 2...The Bees!)
In my last article, When All Else Fails... Make Friends with Nature (Part 1) , I told a heartwarming story about how I made good friends with the squirrels who live at my apartment building. Unfortunately, when my neighbor (and his girlfriend), who live in the apartment under me, started complaining about the squirrels tearing up their balcony, and then threatening to harm them, I had no choice but to stop feeding the squirrels on my balcony. However, oddly enough, when I first received word that my neighbor was upset about the squirrel situation, a tiny little bee just happened to show up on my balcony one day! Just one little honey bee! And guess what he found? He found a tiny little pot of liquid gold sitting on my solar altar! Yes, that's right! He found honey!
Ofcourse it wasn't my intention to feed this honey to the bees. I had actually placed this teaspoon of honey in the center of my solar altar, which I created and placed on my balcony in October of 2021, so I could start performing daily sun worshipping rituals. The idea that a bee would find this honey (in the winter time) never even crossed my mind. But there he was... just 1 1/2 to 2 months or so later after I had first created my solar altar... Just as my squirrel saga was coming to an end my bee saga had just beegun!
Sorry for the blurry photos! This was the best I could do with my flip phone. Isn't he cute? Sitting on a little hazelnut as if it was his bar stool! Now, this isn't the first time I've been up close and personal with a bee. In fact, for some reason, which I will explain at the end of this article, there have been many bee deaths at my building. I pass tons of dead and dying bees in my hallway daily. It's very depressing actually. So for the longest time I have been rescuing sick bees from my hallway and taking them in at night. I've been placing them in my meditation pyramid, giving them reiki energy healing and saying prayers for them. So as you can see, I already had a relationship with bees!
Now back to the story... One little bee recently showed up on my balcony and started eating the honey he had found... What a happy little guy he was! I welcomed him to my balcony with open arms and told him he could have as much honey as he wanted. Well, lo and behold, word must've got out fast because what would you know, but day by day more and more bees would show up to eat from this little pot of honey! That's right! The bees were eating up the honey so fast that I had to start topping off the honey teaspoon daily. Then it occurred to me that the little teaspoon was not enough! So I expanded the operation to include more honey pit stops.
The bees were in absolute heaven and so was I. But pretty soon I realized that the honey was actually a hazard for the bees. Some of the bees were clumsy and falling into the honey. Then they had trouble getting out and I had to save them! I started using fake leaves from my cat's scratching tree to bail them out of the honey. Then I discovered that I could actually bathe the bees with water and wash the sticky honey off of their bodies and their wings. I have a plastic syringe that I use for one of my cats when I give him his medication. I chase down his pill with water in the syringe. Well, all of a sudden the syringe became a bathing instrument for very sticky bees that seemed to have an extra difficult time cleaning themselves off. I surprised myself at how good I became at cleaning bees. But even more surprising was how the bees were allowing me to do this!
Before long I had created a bee infirmary. If a bee appeared to be sick (unable to fly) I would place him in a big pyrex glass with some fake leaves and a soft towel to rest on along with some honey and then I would cover the container with seran wrap that I poked a bunch of holes in. Some bees seemed to be extra tired and just needed a place to rest for a few hours or for the night. Others were so wet from the bath I gave them that they needed to come inside to warm up and dry off. Some were just too cold to fly and others fell into puddles when it rained and needed to be warmed up and cared for. Most of my bees would make it through the night and were able to be set free the next day. In one case I had a bee that needed to spend two nights with me. A few of the bees didn't make it unfortunately but most of them survived! I think I've been doing a pretty good job!
Very soon I noticed an issue though! If I left honey in the container for the bee to eat overnight and the bee started to fly in the container he most likely would end up falling into the honey! His wings would get all sticky and he would cease to be able to fly again for a while longer. So in an effort to increase the bees healing time and prevent such an accident from occurring I started to fold a little piece of cardboard over the honey to prevent the bee from falling into it and getting sticky.
Yes, that's an amethyst crystal you see in the bee infirmary!
I started to notice that if I kept a bee overnight I seemed to wake up earlier (almost around the time when the sun was rising) as if the bee was telepathically communicating with me asking to be released. I usually have a very difficult time getting out of bed in the morning... but not when I have a guest in my infirmary! There was definitely a communication taking place. And even now, as I write this article, this communication with the bees appears to be getting stronger everyday. There is a definite bond taking place. If there is no honey left outside the bees will wait for me to bring more honey. As soon as I arrive on the balcony with the container of honey they started buzzing all around me. They will land on the container... and some even land directly on my hand! One time I came out onto the balcony and there was no honey left nor any bees in site. I walked to the kitchen to get the bottle of honey and as soon as I was back on the balcony one bee appeared out of nowhere. It was as if he knew I was getting the honey... Then two more flew out of nowhere! Sooner or later a whole crowd appeared!
When I'm taking the time to help a bee that cannot fly it seems that the other bees will start buzzing louder and flying around me in an effort to help. Some even land on my hand when I'm using the syringe to bathe their brother. I've also noticed that they will fly into their weak/ sick brother and bump him a few times as if to give him an extra boost of energy to help him recover faster. It's absolutely fascinating. It's as if we are all working together as a team! T hey definitely know that my intentions are good. I have nothing but love for these bees and I tell them that I love them all the time.
Everyday I pray and meditate on the balcony when performing my sun worshipping ritual. And it seems that the bees are very aware of the energy I am putting out. I can hear them buzzing all around me. Sometimes it feels like they are about to land in my ear. Many will fly right by my face as if to look me square in the eye. They are beautiful little creatures and I feel most grateful to have developed this special relationship with them.
At some point I became a little concerned that I shouldn't be feeding honey to the bees though. I read an article or two that said never to feed honey to bees from other colonies... it may contain harmful bacteria that could be deadly to them. I actually took the honey away for a moment when I read this. And the bees sat on my balcony as if waiting for the honey to return. I felt bad. Then I received even worse news. Turns out that my apartment complex has been fumigating bee colonies that have found their way into the air vents! Horrifying! Now it makes sense why so many bees always appear to be dying at my building. So you know what I said? F this! These bees need my help. They are probably dying from starvation because their honey comb is being fumigated in the winter time... and they need that honey to survive! So you know what? The honey I'm feeding these bees may just be saving their little lives afterall! So I put the honey back on the balcony and I told myself... if I was a bee would I rather die of starvation or take my chances with a batch of honey that may either kill me or save my life? The universe told me that I was doing the right thing! So I will continue feeding honey to my little friends and pray that they stay safe and well under my care! I have the utmost faith that they will. FYI I counted 33 very happy bees on my balcony today! These little guys bring me so much joy! Til next time... bee a good person and bee nice to the bees!
Ha ha! Finally a clear shot!
UPDATE JANUARY 21, 2022: So I finally decided to stop feeding honey to my bees because in reality the honey could be deadly to them and I do not wish to contribute to harming my beautiful little companions in any way whatsoever. Their numbers have started to lower which has been a cause for concern for me... but my spiritual mentor has also advised me to stop feeding them honey. So instead I started feeding them homemade bee fondant made out of white granulated sugar... and guess what? They love it! I also just ordered pollen patties on amazon! Besides their new diet, I have also decided not to give my bees a bath unless it seems absolutely necessary. I've realized that these bees are actually very good at cleaning themselves off. However, if their ability becomes impaired due to extra cold temperatures or the fact that they are so heavily doused in sugar syrup then I will most definitely lend them a helping hand. So that's the story! I do hope the bees like their new pollen patties... To beeee continued again?
Jennie H is a Reiki Master Energy Healer, Co-Founder of Self Saviorz Society California Non-Profit 501(c)(3), Poet, Author and Entertainer with goals to help raise the vibration and consciousness of humanity!
