What Bees Want: Beekeeping as Nature Intended

Presenter: Susan Knilans

Description: Spend a lively evening getting to know the fascinating, unexpected lives of the bees who share your yard and garden. Camas Bee Lady Susan Knilans  gathered the swarm that has been thriving in our library hive for five years. She has more than a decade of stories and science to share about honey bees, and the 600-plus native bees who call our region home. Between her honey bee colonies, and her wildly active pollinator hotel, Susan learned from the bees that what bees want has just about nothing to do with what most beekeepers want. With her colleague Jacqueline Freeman, Susan wrote a book about a brand-new kind of beekeeping that is geared solely to the bees’ wellbeing. Her methods are radical and gentle on bees and their keepers.

Come and learn why square boxes are deadly to bees, and why all male bees have no fathers. There are more bees in your neighborhood than you can imagine! Learn how to provide what they want and need to thrive, whether you’d like to keep colonies of honeybees, or simply marvel at the wonder of these many “beeings” who lived alongside the dinosaurs and gifted us a world full of flowers.