When Marianne and Matt Gee bought their home on a small acreage west of Ottawa, they were surprised to find a honeybee hive had already taken up residence.
Not keen to exterminate these helpful pollinators, Matt relocated them to a box and set up the hive in the backyard with a little help from a local beekeeper. The couple soon became beekeepers by choice and discovered they really enjoyed keeping bees.
Soon a call came in about another hive found in a house — would they be interested in rescuing it? Matt, who worked in construction as a career, was in a unique position to access the bees and safely remove them. With Matt’s home building experience and the couple’s beekeeping knowledge, the Gees found themselves rescuing dozens of hives over a number of years.
Fast forward seven years to 2016, and Marianne and Matt are embarking on a much larger honeybee venture — one that moves from just rescuing bees to, instead, setting up individual honeybee hives across several Ottawa neighbourhoods.
Gees Bees Honey Company, as their company is called, recently launched their Host-a-Hive program where those interested in having bees in their backyard receive one complete honeybee hive set up for a year.