If you ever need to stick your hand
into a hole filled with bees,
like this one,
or this one,
or maybe even this one,
first of all, don’t!
But if you’re a professional
with the proper safety gear and training,
remember to introduce yourself.
“Say hi, girls.”
“Say hello, girls.”
Because according to Dan,
being kind is the secret to being a good bee rescuer.
And he should know, because he happens to be one.
Say hello to Dan, the kind bee rescuer.
Dan’s a friend to all bees
because he knows how special they are.
Bees shake pollen loose
and carry it from one flower to another,
and pollen helps plants grow,
including the plants we get our food from,
and since everyone needs food, everyone needs bees.
But that doesn’t mean we need bees everywhere,
which is where rescuers like Dan come in.
Bee rescuers move bees from places where they don’t belong,
like in your walls or your water meter or your roof,
to new bee homes,
so they can safely go about their bee business.
Or should I say bees-ness?
But Dan wasn’t always a professional bee rescuer.
In fact, he used to not think about bees much at all,
if ever, until one day, a bee colony moved into his shed.
Dan didn’t mind the bees, but he couldn’t leave them there
because keeping bees wasn’t allowed where he lived.
So he called in some rescuers to gently remove them.
Dan was fascinated.
He wanted to help,
so he started following the bee rescuers
everywhere they went
and watching everything they did for months,
until he learned how to do it, too.
And along with being kind,
he learned that he could show the bees he was their friend
by moving at bee speed,
which means taking things nice and slow and easy.
No rushing the bees with scoops or vacuums,
just gently moving them from one place to another,
one careful handful at a time.
And it’s not just the big bees that need his helping hands.
He also moves the baby bees that haven’t hatched yet.
They’re inside these honeycombs.
Yep, right in those little cells.
After he’s got a whole bee family
safely inside a bee box and ready for transport,
he takes them back to his bee rescue
for his favorite part of his job: rehab.
Excuse me, I mean bee-hab.
Bee-hab is all about helping the bee colonies rebuild,
because even though he’s super gentle,
moving always puts a little stress on the colony,
so Dan gives them lots of space to heal
in special, custom-sized beehive boxes.
And of course, he makes sure they get all the food they need
to grow healthy and strong again so they can be adopted.
That’s right.
Dan doesn’t just move and care for bees.
He also finds them forever homes
with other people who know bees are special
and who wanna keep them safe and healthy.
And after he’s personally delivered the bees
to their new home,
he gets right back to work,
because somewhere out there is a wall or a yard
or some other place full of bees who need Dan’s help,
and he can’t wait to meet them.
“Say hello, girls.”