The Bee Sanctuary

Our colonies come from rescued ‘wild’ hives that moved into homes or other inconvenient locations and were relocated to the Sanctuary.  I discovered these wild bees still had many important genetic traits​ and survival adaptations that have been lost to commercial bees through selective breeding. Beekeeping practices that support these innate traits and natural life processes helped our bees to evolve resistance to the parasites and diseases that decimated the Big Island’s honeybee populations after the arrival of varroa mites in 2008 and small hive beetle in 2010.

The Sanctuary is home to a thriving ‘genetic bank’ of treatment-free survivor colonies. The many years of educating and advocating for the bees has paid off. Awareness of the critical role of pollinators, especially honeybees, has grown rapidly. Natural, regenerative beekeeping has now become a major movement around the world, along with a tremendous growth in small-scale ‘back yard’ beekeeping. I am so blessed and proud to have contributed to the renewal of a loving relationship between humans and bees.

At our Sanctuary the bees remind us how to live in a happy, healthy, harmonious relationship with Mother Nature.

For more than two decades, I have studied and worked with honeybees intensively, work that included experience in the commercial beekeeping industry. What I learned there helped me understand why the bees are in decline and develop regenerative practices, such as allowing bees to swarm (reproduce naturally) and to build their own wax honeycombs.

We maintain a small number of well-loved and gently handled colonies and provide hives and mentorship to aspiring natural beekeepers. The primary purpose of our sanctuary is the long-term health and vitality of the bees, rather than human economic interest, and honors the innate wisdom of this ancient species.

vs. Conventional Beekeeping

Intensive ‘human-centric’ management of honeybees practiced by most commercial beekeepers today has led to rampant disease and colony die-off, and the global crisis we humans face with the loss of these essential pollinators. Like most other agricultural plants and animals, bees have fallen into the soul-less realm of factory farming. These operations have hundreds or even thousands of colonies, which are treated simply as economic units.  Artificial insemination, chemical treatments for human-induced parasites and disease, the killing of older queens, and the stress induced by trucking thousands of colonies from one pesticide-soaked mono-crop field to another are but a few of the factors that have led to their decline.

Is Honey Healthy? Is it Humane? 

Raw, unheated honey from bees in wild or organic forage is one of the purest, most nutrient dense and healing foods available. But the quality and healing properties of honey, and its ethical purchase, are dependent on the location and practices of the beekeeper.  Many of the ‘medications’ commonly given to bees are neurotoxins or mutagenic.  Source your honey from small-scale natural beekeepers whose hives forage in wild or organic areas.  Local farmers markets are a great way to find healthy and humane honeybee products.