For her honeybee healing hut, a Blaketown beekeeper is spreading good vibrations
A beekeeper on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula is inviting people to check out the good vibrations that bees can make — by sitting atop thousands of them.
Nicole Russell has opened up the Honey Bee Healing Hut in Blaketown, where people can visit a shed she's fitted out with a vaulted ceiling, and a reclining bed that sits atop four beehives.
"They're circulating air and they're buzzing. They're bringing in pollen and honey and you're on the bed and you're just relaxing," Russell told CBC News.
She added people and the bees are kept separately in the hut, so people don't have to worry about bees flying about inside.
"The bees have their own entrance and they can only come into their own hive. They're double screened, so they can't get into this hut at all and they can't get in under the bed, only into their hive."
She said visitors to the Blaketown hut — it's south of Dildo, Trinity Bay — will notice three things when they step inside: the sound, the smell and the vibrations.
Bees vibrate at a high frequency, so when people lay down on top of the stage above the hives, they can feel the effects, said Russell.
"I'm not a doctor — so I can't really say — but I do know that when I lie down on the bed, I can actually feel a little buzz in my fingers and in my toes."
She likened it to a mini-massage. In addition, people can also smell warm wax, pollen and propolis, which bees make from certain types of trees.
"There's a pheromone that we're taking in and we're breathing that all in," said Russell.
Russell also operates the Raspberry Cottage Apiary Boutique where she sells crafts and items made from bee-products.
Looking to protect hive
The idea to start the healing hut began after she experienced a devastating loss of five of her seven hives last spring, said Russell.
"So I went down this rabbit hole — how do I keep the bees safe through this cold and wet winter? And Newfoundland is cold, wet and, you know, probably going be cold and wet forever," she said.
In her research, she found people were overwintering their bee hives in sheds. Then she read about the longstanding European practice of people lying on top of the bee hives.
"Bee therapy has probably existed as long as humans have existed. And I thought, 'Well, this is great. This is me helping them and them helping us,'" said Russell.
"What a great symbiotic relationship that could be. And so that's how it started."
Creating a cozy space
When it came to creating her own bee hut, Russell knew she wanted it to be cozy and a bright space.
"I wanted the ceiling to be vaulted. I wanted there to be wood and it to look a bit rustic. I wanted to use this old door that I found from a house in New Harbour, a solid wood, so heavy I had to have, like, help to lift it."
Russell said even if people don't buy into the health benefits the bees could be providing, they can still take something positive from the experience.
"You're lying on top of thousands of bees. You know, when can you ever get that close to, you know, to hives? When can you ever get that close to something? So magnificent really," she said.
She linked it to being near a low, crackling fire or a waterfall.
Moreover, she said the bees are fanning themselves to maintain their temperature, which creates a cozy effect in the hut.
"It's like a nice sauna, kind of," she said. "It's nice and warm."
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