wanderers. wonderers. creators. Meet Jack....

People who inspire for all kinds of reasons, small or big.

There are folks in my life who have inspired me to be better. They’re my mentors. My teachers. My heroes. They’ve shared their knowledge with me, patiently and gracefully. Some are older. Some are younger. Age doesn’t seem to matter. All are wise and doing what they love. Once in a while, I’ll be chatting with them about what makes them tick and sharing their stories with you. I hope you’ll feel energized by their insights. And, one day, perhaps you’ll be my next featured wanderer. wonderer. creator.

“Please don’t kill the bees...”

Last year we had a swarm of bees land in our yard. In a flash, hundreds of them swooped onto the branches of our Cascalote tree. I’ve never seen anything like it. All those bees together seemed dangerous, kind of scared me, too. I wasn’t sure what to do about them, so I called my nephew, Jack, who is a beekeeper. He said, “Cool! They’re honey bees and are using your trees as a resting spot until they find a new place to build a hive. And, please don’t kill the bees, just leave them be (pun intended) and they should be on their way in a day or so.” And the next day they were gone. 

 

A swarm of bees in our Cascalote tree.

July Artist Feature: Jack Andreoni

Meet my nephew, Jack Andreoni. He is a treatment-free beekeeper and top-bar beehive builder. His mission is to raise bees from rescued feral colonies adapted to the natural cycles of weather and forage in his California hometown and around the world.

My nephew Jack-o!

(Diane) Hi Jack! What sparked your interest in beekeeping? And at what age were you when you began? 

(Jack) While I was studying abroad in Chile in 2012, I ended up living with a beekeeper, Marisol Coñuaquil, an indigenous women who has turned beekeeping and the products she creates into a way to support her family and to promote her culture. I just thought it was so fascinating and I knew that at some point bees would become a part of my life.  

Marisol Coñuaquil

In 2015 I got invited to work on a documentary film about beekeeping in Cuba. I got stung a lot and learned so much during that experience that I knew there was no looking back. As soon as I got back home I started making connections and figuring out how I could work with bees myself.

Watch the documentary! Biographies of Beekeepers

(Diane) That's cool that you got to travel to Cuba at the young age of twenty-two. What was the most inspiring thing you learned there while beekeeping? 

(Jack) I remember one Cuban beekeeper telling me, “when one hive dies, make two!" I was continually impressed by the resourcefulness of Cuban beekeepers. The use of chemicals is prohibited in Cuba, so beekeepers have a strict system of re-queening their hives with local survivor queens every year. The fact that the island had been isolated for so long means that no outside honey bee genetics have been brought in for a long time. This means that over time beekeepers in Cuba have raised their own bee that's adapted well. 

Having the right equipment and even just getting to the places where flowers are blooming is difficult. So no, their system isn't without many challenges, but I was impressed by the work they are doing and I learned a ton during the project. 

(Diane) A quick google search told me there are roughly 20,000 known species of bees wandering the world. Honey bees represent a small fraction with only eight surviving species. I wonder which species do you work with? 

(Jack) I work with the Western Honey bee or Apis Mellifera. There are many different species of native bees in the US, but none are classified as honey bees (meaning that they produce honey). The Western Honey bee that we know was brought over by Europeans. Although beekeeping and honey are popular, enthusiasts could probably do more to save the bees by educating themselves on the local native bees of their area. They are so beautiful, and far more threatened than Apis Mellifera. This is definitely something I'm curious to learn more about.

(Diane) Why are bees so important to our environment? 

(Jack) They are important to the environment we humans have created because we have come to depend on them as pollinators for so many of our food crops. I always say, too, that bees are a barometer for how we are doing. If bees are having a tough time we can definitely say that the balance of how we deal with the environment is off. Another way in which bees are important to our environment is that they help us connect to it more. Keeping bees creates a sense of wonder and appreciation for nature. Before I started keeping bees I really didn't appreciate or understand the importance of having a diversity of flowering plants. Now I see it everywhere. 

(Diane) To me, beekeeping is like making art; it's a creative process and the outcome can be beautiful. What do you enjoy most about the art of beekeeping?  

(Jack) Honestly, my favorite part about beekeeping is just observing bees doing well. I don't need to manipulate anything or create anything. I just watch and appreciate. It makes me smile every time. Beekeeping can involve a lot of creativity. When you open a box and see that a hive has no queen or is about to swarm you don't have time to think too much. You just have to make a decision and go with it. And in the end, when the flowers are blooming and the weather is good, then we will have good outcomes, because the bees are the ones that know what they're doing. 

(Diane) So, what you’re saying is “Let the bees be!” I love it. Do you ever feel threatened by the bees? 

(Jack) Sometimes when I go to open a hive and I really have no business doing so, or I'm really thinking about something else, the bees will let me know. A few stings in the face send a powerful message. However, if I maintain a calm and focused energy I don't feel threatened, and neither do to the bees. 

Jack finding a beehive inside the walls of a house.

(Diane) How do you protect bees from disease and dying without specific insecticide treatments?   

(Jack) A great way to help is raising bees in an area that's clean with abundant and diverse sources of nectar and pollen.  

Another way is to propagate bees that survive without much help from humans. With the many challenges bees face, it's important that they adapt on their own. Overly relying on chemicals have yet to fix the issue and just causes bees to be dependent on us to survive. Bees have been around for millions of years, and I think they will survive and adapt to many of these changes if we let them. This will, however, require that we rethink our relationship to bees on a large scale, which is a challenge. 

(Diane) What are your thoughts about protecting the future of bees? 

(Jack) That's a tough question. I think the future of bees will depend on rethinking a few ideas: our relationship to plants, our relationship to chemicals, and our relationship to honey bees. There is already a great push to plant more bee friendly gardens and allow for wild spaces to bloom. There also needs to be continued efforts to reduce the amount of chemicals in the environment that harm bees. Most importantly, protecting the future of bees may require a re-imagining of our relationship with them. This is a tough idea, because the way in which our food is produced is so dependent on pollination from honey bees. We need to support people advocating changes in agriculture that help support pollinator health and diversity, while still maintaining a productive and profitable food system. 

A queen with her worker bees.

(Diane) Will you briefly describe what a “drone” bee is and the important mating ritual that happens between it and the queen bee?

(Jack) A lot of people don't know about drone bees. They are the larger male bees, born without stingers so they don't gather pollen, like the female worker bees do. They have these giant specialized eyes that they use to spot Virgin Queens. When a Virgin Queen is born she will leave on a mating flight. Only the fastest and fittest drones from other hives will be able to mate with her, after which the drone bee dies. A single queen will mate with dozens of drones and store their sperm in her body for the rest of her life, so that she can fertilize thousands upon thousands of eggs in a given season.  

Drones are actually born when a queen lays an unfertilized egg, so they are haploid clones of their mother queens. They are raised in the spring and summer when resources are abundant, and in the fall the drones are kicked out of the hive, since they no longer are needed.

(Diane) Do the drones have any task other than mating with the queen and then dying? 

(Jack) I'm really not sure! Some say that they help to keep the brood warm, but the fact is that they are very resource intensive. This is why they don't survive during times when resources are limited. 

(Diane) NOTE: I was curious about this so I googled it and the answer is NO. I found out that a drone's only role in life is to mate with the maiden queen. It takes 5 seconds for the two to mate, in mid-flight! When the drone's sperm is ejaculated into the queen, the force is so powerful that it ejects him; and then he dies. What a life! Live to mate. Mate to die. 

(Diane) On my travels I’ve seen a lot of unique beehives. Can you describe what a top-bar hive is and why you chose to build this type of structure? 

(Jack) A top-bar hive is essentially a long trough shaped hive with sloped sides. The bees build the combs horizontally on wooden slats or top-bars. I chose this type of hive style because it's really easy to make and it's very affordable. It also allows the bees to build their own comb naturally, which is always a joy to see. 

(Diane) How are the honeycombs made and is there a reason they look the way they do? 

(Jack) Bees build their combs from wax extruded from glands underneath their abdomen. The hexagonal shape is a super efficient and sturdy structure for storing honey and pollen, and producing brood. I'm sure there is a lot more that can be said on the way that bees build their combs. I just know that it's a real joy to watch them at work in Spring!  

(Diane) Thanks for BEE-ing such a great person Jack-o! I learned so much about bees interviewing you. And, your website www.luckofthedrone.com is a great place to learn even more!

Have a bee-u-tiful day!