MARYSVILLE — Thousands of honeybees received some help staying warm this winter.
Members of the St. Philip’s Episcopal Church congregation didn’t want to risk harming the bees by taking the hive down, so late in the year from the top of their church building. They were also worried the bees wouldn’t survive a cold winter. They wanted to do something to help.
So church pastor Mary Allen and members of the congregation started learning about honeybees. They contacted the experts at Washington State University Extension office, Beez Neez Apiary Supply in Snohomish and beekeeper Jerry Mixon in Shoreline.
They learned that bees keep their hive warm by rapidly flexing their wings and that they eat their own honey. They also received advice that they needed to winterize the hive and could help the bees stay warm by putting wood over the exposed side of the hive while leaving the bottom open so bees could travel to and from the hive.
Allen then contacted the Marysville Fire Department and asked if it could lend a ladder truck so someone could reach the hive more than two stories above the ground and install the panel into place.
On Wednesday, a ladder truck arrived at the church so vestry member Richard Billings could drill the plywood into place high above the church entrance.
The whole process took about 20 minutes, vestry member Janice Saulewicz said.
“You can still see the beehive,” she said. “It’s just to cover it as a barrier against the weather.”
The vestry members have joked about holy honey and beeswax candles, Allen said. Both may be real possibilities if the hive can be moved away from the building to another spot on church property and someone volunteers to take care of the bees.
“There are monasteries and covenants that do that so we thought that would be a great thing for our little congregation to do,” Allen said.
Allen said people at a wedding ceremony held at the church in August pointed out the beehive.
“None of us had noticed before then,” Allen said. “We were just astonished.”
Allen called an exterminator who visited the church and told her the bees were honeybees. The congregation had heard reports in recent years of colonies of honeybees unexpectedly dying off and immediately wanted to help save the local bees, Allen said.
“We were trying to find someone to come rescue them, to get the hive down and come rescue the bees. but it got too late in the year to do that,” she said.
Saulewicz, who lives near the church, said she plans to regularly check on the bees throughout the winter.
“I’ll be going over to see if there are any changes and just to peek up inside,” she said. “I’ll be curious to see if any more bees come out.”
Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491; adaybert@heraldnet.com.
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