Episode Four: Jonathan Alawo (Bees in the Wild). Local Beekeeping as Stewardship.
Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of the Prompted by Nature. This week you’ll meet Jonathan Alawo, a bee-keeper with a quiet passion for bees and protecting our fuzzy friends. Jonathon tends to a hive in one of my favourite places, and where I’ll be holding my day retreats once we’re all allowed out again, the beautiful Wilderness Woods in Sussex.
As you’ll hear, Jonathan knew from a young age that he wanted to become a bee-keeper after seeing hives from the car window whilst out driving with his Dad. After his wife, Nina - who I connected with via Instagram last year, and who runs hypnobirthing classes at Wilderness Woods - bought him a beekeeping taster session for his birthday 5 years ago, Jonathan began to tend to his own hive and, in his own words, ‘has been all-in ever since.’ Jonathan sees his beekeeping as 'a small contribution towards a shared responsibility as stewards of the planet we call home.’
Jonathan’s passion for and dedication to the bees he cares for is clear all the way through our conversation and I loved learning more about bee behaviour and how we can ourselves tend to the bees in our own area.
In this conversation, we discuss:
How hives are formed and the science behind beekeeping
The symbiosis of beekeeping
His sadness at losing a hive and his sense of responsibility for the bees
Responsible beekeeping
How we can help bees
The meditative nature of beekeeping
And he shares his biggest teaching from the bees
I loved this conversation and to me it highlighted just how important it is to push those in charge for more wild, biodiverse spaces and also how we ourselves can help to ensure the safety and health of bees by creating these very spaces in our own back gardens - or even in a window box…nature doesn’t need much - in order to do what we can to see our fuzzy friends flourish. A one point, Jonathan shows me a photo of some wax, tis is what it looked like…amazing, isn’t it!
The wax formation created by Jonathan’s bees.
You can find Jonathan on Twitter and Instagram both at @bees_inthewild; on Facebook @beesinthewild (all one word) and his website, which is currently under construction is www.beesinthewild.com
Just a little note on the sound: There were a couple of muffled patches of the conversation, possibly connection-related, that I didn’t realise until I began the editing process so if it seems to jump in a couple of places, that’s why! Technology’s great when it works, not so great when it doesn’t!
Please do stay around until the end when I’ll give you a little insight into the meditation and writing prompt that follows this episode…all inspired by the bees, of course.
If you’d like to connect, as always my website is www.promptedbynature.co.uk or I’m usually to be found on Instagram @prompted.by.nature. If you like this or any of my other episodes, I’d love it if you’d leave a 5-star review, which I’m reliably informed by other podcasts I listen to helps getting the podcast ‘out there.’
Enjoy the conversation, and I’ll speak to you after!
