Apiopolis

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Nonprofit Urban Bee Sanctuary
Conservation | Community | Collaboration | Celebration

Natural beekeeping, pollinator habitat, collaborations, green jobs.

10/13/2026

I dream of bees. In this case drones. Pretty sure this big-eyed boyfriend has been in my feed before but since I couldn’t photograph the actual dream here he is again to represent. In the dream I saw the bees leaving the hive and it was this time of year and I thought oh no too late for a swarm thought maybe they were absconding but when I went close to look at the trees where they were landing they were all drones and they were rather sad and frantic but it was time.

10/11/2026

I semi-joke that I’m titrating humans these days. It helps when they’re fewer in number and children and we’re surrounded by nature. It was a pleasure to join my friend and fellow bee steward, Debra Moylan, at the migrating monarchs walk at The Prairie Ridge Ecostation a couple weeks ago on a warm and sunny afternoon. I have experienced extreme wonder this summer at witnessing some of Debra’s over 100 monarch caterpillars going through their complete life cycle. Just this morning three more emerged from their chrysalises. Being nursemaid to monarchs is an intense and awesome job. On our walk we did see monarchs and cats and eggs and many other butterfly species including pipevine swallowtails. As we paused while our wonderful guide Julia was distributing our educational materials, my fingers wandered the wood of the bench I was leaning on and met this unfamiliar-feeling marvel. It did not take long to identify the chrysalis of the pipevine swallowtail butterfly. So exciting! The bench was under a structure that was home to an immense Dutchman’s pipe vine, larval host to the butterfly. We saw lots of frass and a few cats and even the bright orange eggs. The leaves of the plant are poisonous to many animals and the butterfly larvae assume this toxicity. Like monarchs, they are colored to give warning to potential predators. I did read another common name for Dutchman’s pipe is birthwort and its family name is from the Greek for “best for childbirth”. During classical and medieval times, women drank the juice of the stems to facilitate childbirth. Another source suggested the plant was given this name because of the flowers’ resemblance to human fetuses. The flowers give off the odor of carrion to attract flies which are their pollinators. An afternoon well spent in quiet awe and beauty.

10/02/2026

How fortuitous to see the Queen moving amongst the maidens on the first frame of comb I pulled from this bee family in my home apiary on the first day of October on the same day Governor Kathy Hochul of New York appointed State Attorney General Leticia James as Independent Special Prosecutor in the Cornell case. Haven’t observed drones nor drone brood in any of the colonies I’ve visited in recent days. Maybe the boys have been removed from the buildings.

09/27/2026

What a pleasure to visit the apiaries on the west side of town on the Eve of Astronomical Autumnal Equinox. The bee families were full and heavy with food stores. I feel good about them heading into winter. I’d heard about the installation of the wind phone at Beeloved Community Garden from Beth Snoke Harris earlier this year and was glad to see it in place. I walked the stone labyrinth to its center heart then sat quietly on the private bench by the wind phone. After a few moments I lifted the receiver and followed the thoughtful suggestions then listened. My favorite part of the wind phone’s posted guidance is “Return often: you are welcome here.” As I was finishing with the bees a gentleman entered the garden. He also walked the labyrinth to its center heart then entered the wind phone booth and lifted the receiver. After a few moments he hung up and went to the tree swing. I watched him pump his legs and could feel the familiarity of that distinct movement and pleasure in my own body. As we were leaving the garden together we shared our gratitude for its existence and the beautiful souls who created it, tend to its treasures and welcome us in.

09/26/2026

Happy Full Harvest Moon in Aries. This morning was a two hummingbird in the house rescue which required three ladders, the donning of my old raggedy red JOE MAMA t-shirt and bringing in a feeder that I held hopefully aloft. One finally came down of her own accord and landed briefly on a low ladder rung before flying back out. After much reaching and urging at the top of the peak the second flew under the left lens of my glasses and rested there for the careful one-handed descent, drinking of syrup and release. My left eye is the one that’s now legally blind. When I was little I believed I had magic eyes because I could squint and by switching between my eyes I could see both the thing and what was behind the thing. When my astigmatism was discovered in 1st grade I was forced to wear glasses with a patch over my “good eye”. Surely there are many messages here. wonder

05/20/2026

May all beeings and beings…

‘Are not flowers the stars of the Earth.” Clara Lucas Balfour

‘In some Native languages, the term for plants translates to “those who take care of us.”’ Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

Well, goodness. How can we already be so far along in the Merry, Merry Month of May of 2026 which was just pretty new what feels like yesterday? May is my birthday month and also Nat’l Get Caught Reading Month, Nat’l Military Appreciation Month, Nat’l Older Americans Month, and Nat’l Mental Health Awareness Month. The latter has been observed since 1949 but I think some folks haven’t gotten the memo yet. Today is the final day of Ta**us season and also World Bee Day, the date chosen by the UN to honor the birth of Anton-Janša, the 18th-century Slovenian pioneer of modern beekeeping. This year’s global theme is “Bee Together for People and the Planet - A partnership that sustains us all”, focusing on the long relationship between humans and bees and celebrating the evolution of traditional beekeeping while promoting innovative, sustainable approaches to protect bee health. Hooray and yes, pretty please for the sake of our collective mental health and the wellbeing of all our relations. (Continued in the comments.)

03/08/2026

Happy International Women’s Day to you all you beautiful lady and lady-identifying beings! Grateful for every big and little thing you do to make our wonderful world better and brighter. When we were little girls our beloved Oma taught us how to make magical dandelion crowns. I saw a post recently that said ‘My daughter forgot the word “dandelion” so she described it as “the one that explodes into wishes.” I like that better.’ Wishing all of yours come true including more flowers and that today’s reporting that women and girls still only “enjoy” 64% of the rights men will be history sooner than later. I wonder what our current administration is doing to celebrate and uplift us today and this month and always in all ways?

03/06/2026

“To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, — One clover, and a bee. And revery. The revery alone will do If bees are few.” Emily Dickinson, 1755. On breathing and bees and embodied action. Piedmont prairie making in progress. Found this chilled little sister on the wire suspending a platform bird feeder while filling them at dawn. Warmed her with my breath in the early morning light until she flew off to join the reverent making of tiny and huge new worlds of wonder and sustenance and beauty.

02/28/2026

“… Let the beauty of what we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground…” from A Great Wagon by Rumi. Happy final day of the littlest love month of February, friends. The wonder. This was on an “unseasonably” warm winter day in December when the plum blossoms had begun to burst, fragrant and beautiful with busy foraging bees, before the many hard freezes and ice and snow storms nearly knocked back their will and capacity to bloom. Instead of a brilliant month or so long decadent display, we received smatterings of flowers that persist today. So much wisdom.

01/02/2026

Hooray for a brand new 2026 and 1 year and moving into the year of the Crimson Fire Horse! Slow celebrated yesterday with the stunning natural beauty of the sun’s rise and set, tomorrow’s Super Wolf Moon shining big and bright, immense gratitude, black eyed peas and collard salad shared with , an always joyful puppy play date, and many other tiny giant miracles. My dear sister, ’s New Year’s Day birthday always seems particularly fortuitous and this year’s 1:1:1 portal especially so. Remember when I began with the bees and made labels for each honey harvest with collages of pics and drawings? I was thinking of this particular one yesterday. Excited for this New Year and finally moving forward. Wishing everyone and Regina, the best, most magical year ever. The chickens are of course in on the seasonal shifts and with the light increasing after the solstice have begun laying again. Thankful for all the blessings and kindnesses.

Address

Raleigh, NC
27604

Telephone

+19194498775

Website

http://www.apiopolis.org/

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