A year ago I let someone put a beehive in my front yard.
I was anxious about it.
The front yard is where our kids play. Soccer balls, hoses, general chaos. I had a clear picture of how it would go wrong. And friends who thought I was absolutely mad (I know you'll be reading this).
Our kids, it turnsout, have no fear whatsoever. They collect balls from the base of the hive without breaking stride. They've set up bee baths next to it. Twelve months in, nobody has been stung. Not once.
The best part has been explaining it to them. We'll be down at the beach and see a bee, and I get to tell them that's probably one of ours, that she's flown several kilometres to get here, and she'll carry pollen the whole way home to make the honey that we'll enjoy.
A few things I've learned.
In summer there are between 40,000 and 60,000 bees working the hive. Over winter the keepers dropped it to a single level and it went quiet. Still alive, just holding on until spring.
Our first harvest was in February. 10kg of raw honey. We ate a lot of it and gave a lot of it away. By July it was gone.
I like standing in the flight path and hearing them go past my ear. Occasionally one whacks into the back of my head. And simply carries on.
Not long after the hive arrived, a neighbour put his head over the fence and asked if we had bees. He couldn't see them when he walked past with his dog, but he could hear them. Turns out he keeps three hives himself, is a Bayside Bees association (yes there's an association for Bayside bees), and there are several hive hosts within three blocks of my house.
The honey is the part you can put in a jar. It isn't really the point. The point is happening quietly, for kilometres in every direction, in gardens belonging to people who have no idea it's going on and never paid for it.
The company was called Giftbee long before the hive turned up. The hive was inspired by the company, and the company was named after the bees.
A year on, they've turned up in more of my life, much sweeter than I expected. My family, friends, local community and of course, my business.
Not bad for something I was nervous about in the first place.
Backyard Honey if you want one