With the warmer weather coming, many seasonal changes come with it, flowers are blooming, birds are singing and the bees return, much to the displeasure of many. There is a lot of misinformation when it comes to bees, and Quinte Bee Rescue’s Curtis Hardy wants to stop the stigma.
“People have irrational fears and I find that irrational fears are born out of lack of knowledge and understanding. You need to understand what they do and why they do it.” Hardy says.
Hardy works full-time as an aircraft mechanic, but bees have quickly become a passion of his. Most people will say that a hobby slowly crept upon them until it's a key staple of their life, but for Hardy it hit him like a Mac truck, dead on in the centre of his forehead.
“I told my wife, ‘Hey I want to buy a beehive’ she goes ‘Okay, go right ahead’ and the guy I bought the beehive from ran Quinte Bee Rescue before me.”
He was looking to step out of the business and asked Hardy if he wanted to take over. After going along on a few cutouts he knew it was for him.
A cut-out involves going to a property where bees have formed a hive within the walls, roof or any part of a structure. Hardy will come to the property and open up the walls to get to the hive. He will assess the health of the bees and decide if it is safe for them to be removed now, or if they will have to wait.
“I get five to 10 calls every year and I get a lot in the fall because they're more active in the fall,” Hardy says.
Trying to remove the bees as the weather is getting colder is a death wish, they are more aggressive and if they have to try and form a new hive that close to winter they will die.
“But if they don't, then I'll come back and get them in the spring,” Hardy adds.
Once the bees are removed Hardy will take them to his property and attempt to quarantine them.
Bees are considered livestock and are semi-social creatures. Left alone they are very susceptible to mites and diseases. In a patch of flowers, they can easily pass illnesses between hives and devastate a local population, so many beekeepers will go out of their way to rescue wild hives to be able to properly manage and monitor the local population.
It’s not uncommon for a beekeeper to expand rapidly, most will start off with one or two hives then next year immediately be ready for more. They seem to quickly fall in love with the hobby and taking care of a small flying family.
“For an insect that has less than a million neurons in its brain and breathes through its skin, can only communicate through scent and movement, the complexity of how they live their lives, how they can shift the entire focus of the hive just through the length of the day, the temperature, when they mate, when they expand, when there's smoke in the hive, you know, like how do they know, A. what a fire is. B. That it's coming towards them. C. To get ready quick enough to have enough resources to be able to start up a new hive in a new location and then quickly turn that off and then redeposit all those and then go build their daily life. It’s just amazing to me”
Though Hardy wasn’t always a fan of insects, having just started beekeeping five years ago. He recalls what really turned him around on bees.
“My second son had been born with some massive brain injuries. He was non-verbal and non-mobile and they told me that he'd never eat orally or express emotion and he did those things. I've always had a problem with bugs, stinging insects in particular. I had to stay up all night for the first six months of his life because we'd switch back and forth between me and my wife and every three hours we would have to give him anti-seizure medication and stuff like that, so I got very, very addicted to watching whatever the heck had my fancy for videos. I watched a guy, 628 Dirt Rooster on YouTube, and he does bee rescue. I’m like that's cool, you know what, I like being self-sufficient, maybe I should do bees. If my son can get over his shit. I can get over mine”
Hardy shares his knowledge of bees with anyone who will listen, his wife had suggested getting a plaque put on his chest saying that his secret safe word is petunia so if he rambles on too much about bees you can tell him to quiet down. Among those who like listening to what he has to say are schools.
Hardy has talked to 500 to 600 students at various schools, ageing from kindergarten to grade seven. He doesn’t have a script to follow or a structure but instead lets the children ask questions after showing them a hive and describing their lifestyle. Common questions are a lot of hearsay and rumours about bees, the kindergartners often ask where the king bee is, to which the answer is, there isn't one! Hardy will do all he can to make everyone feel comfortable, going as far as putting some of the live male drones into his mouth, so the kids can see them harmlessly running around on his tongue. The males don’t have stingers so there is no fear of being stung while handling them.
“You can’t look at someone and say ‘you’re stupid for having a fear.’ Comfort comes from understanding and I try to get as much understanding out there as I possibly can.”