Let’s Build Bee Hives!

We Love the Rooftop Hives!

Sue Cobey, instrumental insemination conference, June 15, 2019.

Make Space for Bees.

The Great Unboxing!

Top Bar Recipient

Intern Wove Sun-hive.

“Sometimes a single idea changes the direction of an entire life.”

In 2014, I was preparing to graduate from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. My original plan was to transfer and complete a bachelor’s degree in physics. Instead, I discovered something that would completely change my path.

While studying Community Herbalism and biodynamic agriculture, I was introduced to community organizer Pat Rasmussen, whose passion for edible forests inspired students to think differently about the relationship between people and the natural world. Through those classes, I met Corwin Bell, creator of the Golden Mean top-bar hive and a pioneer in biodynamic beekeeping.

Those experiences opened the door to an entirely new way of thinking about honey bees.

Films such as Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us? introduced me to the growing challenges facing pollinators, including the widespread use of neonicotinoid pesticides and the importance of rethinking how we care for bees. At the same time, I began learning about biodynamic beekeeping—a philosophy that encourages bees to express their natural behaviors through swarming, natural comb building, and open mating.

As I watched those films and learned from passionate beekeepers, one thought kept returning to me:

What if communities everywhere had access to natural beehives designed to support healthy, genetically diverse honey bee populations?

That question became a vision.

I attended classes through the Washington State Beekeepers Association, studied with Corwin Bell, and earned my woodworking certification at Evergreen so I could begin building top-bar hives myself. These hives aligned beautifully with the principles of biodynamic beekeeping by encouraging natural colony behavior while reducing unnecessary intervention.

As my understanding grew, I became especially fascinated by one subject: honey bee genetics.

Honey bees depend on genetic diversity for healthy colonies. A queen mates with many drones during a single series of mating flights, creating the genetic variation needed for disease resistance, productivity, adaptability, and colony resilience. Without sufficient diversity, colonies become more vulnerable to stress and decline.

The more I learned, the more I realized that protecting honey bees wasn’t simply about keeping colonies alive. It was about protecting the genetic strength that allows them to thrive for generations.

Like many people, I was terrified of public speaking. Yet I knew that if these ideas were going to make a difference, I needed to learn how to share them. With the help of a speaking coach, I developed educational presentations that transformed complex honey bee genetics into colorful, interactive learning experiences that people of all ages could understand.

Those presentations became the beginning of something much larger.

The Urban Evergreen Bee Sanctuary was founded on a simple belief:

When communities understand honey bees, they become inspired to protect them.

Today, that vision continues to grow through education, natural beekeeping, children’s books, music, art, pollinator habitat restoration, community partnerships, and programs that encourage people to reconnect with nature.

Every garden planted, every child inspired, every hive built, and every conversation about pollinators becomes part of a larger story.

Because lasting change doesn’t begin with hundreds of hives.

It begins with one person.

One flower.

One hive.

One community.

One small step toward a healthier future.

Welcome to our story.