Our Inspiration
Years ago, myself and a good friend - also named Denise - decided to take a course in honey beekeeping to help bolster their declining populations. We very quickly realized that honey bees are very fragile and need a lot of human intervention to survive. Most disturbing of all, we saw that honey bee colonies are often kept alive only through the application of multiple chemicals to ward off mites, bacteria, and parasites, and these chemicals eventually end up in the wax, brood and honey. This didn't sound good for bees OR humans.
|  Denise Shreeve |
So we decided to take up the cause of our Native Bees by spreading the word that over 3,500 species of native pollinators in North America can provide an awesome alternative to most honey bee pollination. After all, they’ve been pollinating our plants for millions of years! All they need to prosper and multiply is a helping hand from us by providing them with healthy habitats, so that became my goal.
In considering what native bees need to be most happy and productive (yes, I’d like to believe that bees can be happy), I determined that healthy nesting boxes, or bee houses, would be most beneficial to offset their loss in habitat due to urban sprawl and pesticide use (boo). I then spent a couple of years researching their habits and testing many different bee house designs, determined to create a bee house that you’d be proud to hang in your yard, was easy to use, and met or exceeded USDA specifications. Finally, after my family and friends would no longer speak with me about anything ‘bee’, I was able to collaborate with a very talented (and very patient) Virginia craftsman, Jim Murphy. Our Plan Bee House was finally born and is now pollinating home gardens, nurseries, schools, business landscapes, orchards, parks and historic properties throughout the mid-Atlantic region.
Jim Murphy
One clarification: Since I live in northern Virginia I began this adventure as Virginia Native Bees. However, I soon realized that the need for education and habitat to promote native beekeeping was a national concern, so we are now championing Our Native Bees across the country.