Bee Attitudes: Better to Give than Keep [VIDEO]

Kagen Weeks wanted to become a "bee giver," so he took his big idea to the people, and got it funded with the help of Kickstarter, an online crowdsourced funding site. He raised about $3,000 from about 51 "backers" who saw merit in his business plan.

In March, Weeks officially switched gears and went from being a guy with a persistent bee habit to being founder of  Hive at Your Home. His goal now is to spread the gospel of bees, and by extension, help the world understand how to live in harmony with nature.

Even with fair warning that he's a dedicated bee aficionado, it's hard to anticipate the apiary verve Weeks possesses, until you meet him.

"Just as it's not about being a beekeeper, this isn't really about the bees either, as that's not really what I'm most interested in. As a geeky engineer who thinks of things as systems, the plight of bees is intertwined with our current agriculture –  instead of honey bee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) I see this as Agriculture Collapse Disorder," says Weeks, who has admitted he thought a lot about the importance of bees.

Even more, he's thought about their predicament, as migrant pollinators, which is not just bad for the bees, but bad for human kind.

"Right now 73 percent of kept bees are in California for the almonds. They will go back to Florida or Texas, with many then going to Maine for blueberries, then down here for apples, or Massachusetts for cranberries, then down south again to prepare for California in late winter. Beekeepers have to do this or our food won't be pollinated and we will starve," Weeks said. 

All this underscores his interest in cultivating hyperlocal food sources, which includes cultivating bees that can pollinate on their home turf.

"Bees need to be local, too, as the bees you can mostly buy are bred down south from a race of bees that aren't used to northern winters. I am trying to start breeding northern hardy bees, locally here – and I'm beyond organic, because I'm practicing no-treatment beekeeping," said Weeks.

His big idea goes beyond bees and local food: It's about building a human community that understands the finer points of the ecosystem.

Weeks also talks about the unique relationship between New Hampshire politics and bee democracy [see video.]

One thing is clear: bee giving takes time, and planning.

To that end, Weeks is already planning hives for 2013, his hands currently full enough with several public hives, including locations in New Boston and Wilton. But he envisions keeping hives at a city-run community garden, and maybe partnering with local businesses that could utilize the honey produced by local bees.

Part of his business plan also includes bee education, taking his "bee attitudes" to community and school groups.

By fall, Weeks' goal is to have 50 hives in New Hampshire at sponsored locations, and growing year by year.

"Just the act of having these public bees means that people share in, and learn about, and be part of a food endeavor together. It brings people together into community and that support of a community is what is really important to me," Weeks said. 

It's an important lesson that Weeks says we could learn from bees, which generally make all their decisions by consensus.

Weeks would like to see a return to the way things were, when every farm in New Hampshire used to a have a hive or two. It wasn't considered beekeeping then; just the best way to run a farm, which was an important part of the food chain in every local community. 

To get there, Weeks would like to offer his services, bringing hives, along with his expertise, to wherever someone would like to cultivate a colony. He has tapped into his geeky engineer to build a more bee-friendly hive, one that he designed to shift the focus away from honey collection and back to happy bees.

"I want to provide basic skills for people so they can have their own bees.  By making the hives simple and making the bee happier, I'm hoping that more people will become 'bee havers'," Weeks said.

On the web: hiveatyourhome.wordpress.com