Welcome back to the Port Pearls Almanac. This is Andy, and today we have a very special guest.

Susan McElroy joins us to discuss traditional

beekeeping, skip hives, and what it's like to have honeybees as roommates. Susan has been

making skeps for nearly a decade and she has since explored log hives among other practices

which we'll discuss. In this episode, we'll talk about the viability of beekeeping in the modern world

and what responsibilities we have as beekeepers that may not have been evident in the past.

Susan's also the author of a number of New York Times bestsellers,

all of which you can find online if you'd like to read some of her work,

including animals as teachers and healers,

Heart in the Wild, All My Relations, Why Buffalo Dance, Cording the Wild, and Animals as Guides for the Soul.

Check out our books, and I hope you will all find this interview as insightful as I did.

Susan. I hope you will all find this interview as insightful as I did. Susan, thanks so much for coming on.

Could you tell us a little bit of yourself and the work you're doing?

Well, I've been kind of a nature nut for many, many years.

And then I just became a zealot about bees after I went to a really wonderful two or three day retreat

given by apious Mikhail Tili. And he did a special program called, like, I think it was like

the sacredness of bees. And I went there and was about 14 people and we were standing in front of hives and just experiencing bees. And I went there and was with about 14 people and we were standing in front of hives

and just experiencing bees. And I just came away completely obsessed and just dove in with both

feet and was blessed to be working with a woman, Jacqueline Freeman, who's always been into

bekeeping in a more natural way. So we really hit

it off well and have been kind of sharing notes and ideas for years. And then we recently wrote a book

last February that got released called What Bees Want. And that talks about our method of giving bees what they want so that they can

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