This year, on August 15th, we celebrated World Honey Bee Day! There is never a dull moment working in real estate… and when honey bees were found in the walls of one of our properties, we knew we needed to find a way to extract the hive without harming the bees. How perfect that the very month we are working on this house is the same month that has a day celebrating the hard-working bee.World Honey Bee Day recognizes both the honey bee and the beekeepers who tend to the hives. It also encourages everyone to enjoy and buy locally grown honey. Supporting these pollinators is vital for honey bee survival, and an essential part of World Honey Bee Day is providing them with a supportive environment. They depend on the nectar from flowering plants, and we rely on the honey bees to pollinate our favorite plants.Stephano Briguglio of Azure B Apiaries (@azures_bees) is a Maryland beekeeper we’ve recently had the opportunity to work with. We’ve seen how the honey bee removal process ensures the bees are carefully removed and taken to a new location to continue pollinating and living together as one hive.How can honey bees be safely removed from the walls of your home? Well, it all begins with the Queen Bee. Once the Queen is extracted and safely contained, the swarm can be calmly smoked or vacuumed out for the beekeeper to remove the honeycomb and hive. The full hive will be safely transported to the farm so the bees can continue to live in their own hive. Worry-free for both you and the bees.     Here are three things you can do now to help the honey bees:

1. Collect and spread local wildflower seeds to promote honey bee pollination. Here are some perennials native to Northern Virginia: Blue Wild Indigo, Wild Bleeding Heart, Wild Strawberry, Sweet Joe-Pye Weed, Wild Geranium, Spotted Geranium, Narrow-leaved Sunflower, Jerusalem Artichoke, Dwarf Crested Iris, Liatris, Common Wild-Petunia, and Goldenrods.
2. Replace your usual sweetener with honey for the day and taste the difference!
3. Buy local and give the gift of honey. Find local honey here in Alexandria at places like Nalls Produce Inc.