How you do this?

I'm itchy!

It's a process to put this on but it's worth it for the honey.

I don't really like bugs like every time I see a bee or something, I run or I scream like I can't be near it.

Theyre just like humans.

Just different.

Yes.

Hopefully I get to touch one today.

Like rub it.

Not like, get stung.

I'm stealing his interview now.

Get out the way.

Hopefully I get to, I'll get to feel what bees are like, you know, on my body and all that.

Hopefully I get to meet the queen bee I know she has a green dot on her.

Theyre right in here.

We're looking in there.

- We see the milky white larvae.

- Ew, wait, ew!

So those are young bees.

How'd they get the bees?

We will never know.

Wait.

There we go, okay.

- There are other therapeutic beekeeping programs there, mostly for vets.

This is the first in this country that I'm aware of that's for teenagers and that uses beekeeping at the intersection of healing and mental health and job skill building.

I've worked in various capacities in the child protective and foster care systems, And Huneebee Project was born really out of extreme disheartenment with working within these systems.

I realized very quickly I did not discover anything new about beekeeping because every beekeeper, I spoke with their response and I was like, it feels kind of therapeutic, And they say, yeah, like, that's that's one of the reasons we do it.

- The nice thing about this day is, like, when you have a day that's this nice and it feels good to be a human being in weather like this, it usually feels pretty good t be a bee in weather like this.

So this should be a good first day to open the hive.

It should be pretty chill and gentle.

Ready?

Lets go on over.

Kayvon will you hold that for me?

It feels like pretty heavy.

- Yeah it does.

To be learning some of that patience kind of learning the behavior of bees The behavior of the bees mimic a lot of who we are of, like, human beings, right?

If you interrupt my environment, I'm not going to be so happy about it either.

So, just kind of learning how to, learn what they need and be able to listen to them.

- Oh, look at this.

Here's a be who's coming out into the world for the first time.

Right there.

- You know, they come here on Saturday, whatever they got going on during the week, and then you come here, you learn, you do the bees.

And it's just something so completely differen from your ordinary life and your your everyday struggle and stuff that you got going on.

It just it just opens up a whole different world.

You know, you you're scared of certain things that you think is a big deal when you know, you get to learn about it.

You might be scared of getting on an airplane, but you do the research and you start learning more about the airplane, and you know that flying is one of the safest forms of transportation.

So it's kind of like the same thing with the bees.

Prior to Hunneebee, I was definitely like struggling a lot.

I wasnt necessarily raised with the idea of like therapy being helpful, and I wasn't really taught, like, what mental healt meant, what trauma looked like.

In high school, when I tried to take my life, I was finally recommended therapy so I, you know, when I started the program and like, I got to learn about the bees and like everything else, my first time getting suited up and everything, I was definitely terrified and, like, anxious and everything else.

But the build up alongside, like, having all these people to talk to and, This kind of like little community was definitely really helpful.

It really is incredible how many, how many different paths can emanate from the garden?

It's not just it's not just about keeping bees, and it's not just about planting flowers.

Well, you see, I thought I was going to get stung by a bee or, like, a couple because I was, like, shaking a little bit.

Like the bees, they're not trying to hurt you.

They're nice.

Like they don't want to hurt you.

I found the the buzzing, like the white noise that they created absolutely mesmerizing.

I think that needing to kind of breathe through it allows it to be kind of this like mindful task.

Oh yeah, I felt pretty peaceful.

I wasn't really nervous or anything.

Therapy is like just calming.

Letting me feel like, you know, there's no worries.

Letting me feel like there's nothing.

You know there's nothing really going on.

It's just me and the bees, you know Im saying?

- Will you way back up.

just for one second?

I'm going to shake them.

Clean that out.