Dana L. Church - Beekeepers

The following story and Traditional Knowledge

were shared by Dr. Henry Lickers, an Elder of

the Seneca Nation, Turtle Clan, Haudenosaunee

(also known as the Iroquois).

The Haudenosaunee were the first

agricultural peoples to live in what is now

northeast Canada and the United States. They

continue their agricultural practices today.

I grew up on the Six Nation Reserve near Brantford, Ontario, Canada. I remember there was an old barn that they used to store hay bales in, for bedding for the cattle. One day I was in the barn and I saw a bumble bee fly out of one of the bales of hay. Then another, then another. Then I saw one fly back in. I watched them for a while as they flew in and out.

I didnt know anything about bumble bees, but I was curious, so I grabbed a stick and approached the bale of hay. I used the stick to pry it apart little by little. Sure enough, didnt I come to a great group of [what looked like] I want to call them gray, gray to white grapes, in a little bunch. The bees got a little upset, so I put the hay back and went to see my grandmother, who knew about these things.

I told my grandmother what I saw, and she asked, Did you sing the bee song? And I said, Grandma, I dont know the bee song.

I will teach you the bee song, she said.

So, my grandmother followed me out to the barn. I noticed that as I approached the spot where I had seen the bumble bees, my grandmother stayed back. You go forward, she instructed. And me as an adult will stay back. That is the proper way.

My grandmother told me to sit near the bees and wait and listen. I had to listen very carefully to how the wings of the bees were flapping. Sure enough, after a while I could hear it. It was like a humming sound. Some wings were flapping really, really fast, and others were flapping really, really low. Together, a type of harmony was created, or a chorus of notes. And as the bees worked, some were flapping their wings while others werent. As I listened really carefully, I could hear what the song was. Now hum along, said my grandmother. And as I hummed along, the bumble bees became very calm. Every bumble bee nest has its own song, explained my grandmother. You have to listen for it.

As I hummed along with the bees, it was as if to them I wasnt even there. Or, it was as if I was another bee. I started to slowly take the nest apart, being careful not to just rip it apart. You have to take a really slow time to look. Youll see these things that are about the size of a big pea, my grandmother said. When you see those, dont reach in and grab them all. You grab just one. The bees might start flying around a little bit more, but you keep the humming going. The bees are a peaceful tribe. The bee makes that honey for her own kids, and makes it for any kids. But unless you treat it with respect and hum to them, they wont give it up easily.

You put that little pill in your mouth, my grandmother continued, hold it, and put the nest back together again. Then you can back away, squash the pill in your mouth, and eat the whole thing.

As I backed away from the nest, I squashed the pill in my mouth with my tongue. It felt like I want to say its like a gelatin coat. You know, how Jell-O goes when it gets hard? Its like that. And of course, when I squashed it, the honey came out. But my grandmother never called it honey, though. She called it something else, like a honeydew, or a dew type of thing. She said that its sweet, like maple sap, but not overly sweet like honey bee honey. And as I tasted it, I realized she was right.

After that day I found a number of bumble bee nests. They really interested me. There would have been about three or four acres of bush and trees, and I usually found them around the edge, where you had thick grass. I found them in there. And there was usually some type of structure with it, like a rock. So, they would be beside the rock but in the grass, and you could see how they were sort of pulling the grass down to it. I remember one nest was at the edge of a marsh, in an old muskrat house. But I never told anyone where I found the bee nests. I kept it a secret. And I always left fresh grass very near to the nest for the bumble bees.

My grandmother told me other things about bumble bees, too. She said that bumble bees were one of the few animals that when they started out, they had no fur, no clothes on them. And so, they got cold. The Creator said, Well, we cant have that. But the bumble bees didnt want just one set of clothes! They asked the Creator for many different sets. So, when you see a bumble bee going into the ground, shes going in actually to change her clothes. She changes her clothes so she can look pretty. And if you watch the bees carefully, like I did, youll see they groom themselves. They groom themselves and when their clothes get too dirty, they just go in and change them! And their nests are porous. Even the underground stuff. And my grandmother said that was so the dew and the mist can get into their nest and clean their clothes for them.

And so, to us as Native People, the bumble bees were all one family. All they did was change their clothes every once in a while, to confuse everybody.

My people were farmers, so we needed pollinators. Bumble bees are very important to us. Sometimes bumble bees are confused with honey bees, but honey bees are not native to North America. That means they are not naturally from there. They were introduced by Europeans. Bumble bees are native, though, and they are very important for the Three Sisters. There was a tall sister, who was very tall. She was the corn. There was another sister who was not so tall, but she was clingy. Thats the beans. And then there was a short, fat sister. Of course, thats the squash. Corn, beans, and squash. They were planted together and so they grow together as the Three Sisters.

Our fields were vast: two, three, four, five hundred acres of land. And the tradition goes that you plant the Three Sisters in circles with a common center that will all ripen at different times. Each circle is farther from the village. And the last circle is the circle that you leave for the animals. So, the deer and the raccoons and all those will come and eat of that last circle around your field.

So, anything that helps you get a better crop were considered your helpers. Bumble bees were like, wow, they were good people!

M illions of years ago, before the first humans appeared on the planet, bumble bees buzzed from flower to flower. The earliest bumble bee fossil records we have date back to what we call the Oligocene era (34 million to 23 million years ago), millions of years after the dinosaurs roamed the Earth (see Figure 1-1).