SPL LIFE
Un-BEE-lievable Honeybees on the MFA rooftop create a sweet buzz PHOTO/ALLISON LYNN PHOTOGRAPHY AND NOBLE NECTAR APIARIES
BY MARCIA BIGGS
While the world quarantines at home, the rooftop of the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts never stops buzzing. Nondescript white hive boxes attract over 100,000 honeybees frantically going about their daily deeds of gathering nectar from urban gardens and parks around downtown St. Pete. Upon returning, they deposit the sweet liquid and cap each cell with wax. Some bees attend to the queen bee, others guard the larvae or perform cleanup duties. It’s the never-ending cycle of the secret life of bees. Installing honeybee hives on the museum rooftop seemed like a natural thing to do, says Julie Wilson, the director of marketing and communications. She credits executive director Kristen Shepherd
14
StPeteLifeMag.com
May/June 2020
with bringing the idea with her from Los Angeles when she took over her post three and a half years ago. “It was a goal that she had when she arrived. We have such an abundance of flowering plants here, and Pinellas County is known to have more urban beekeepers than anywhere else in the country, so it just seemed like the right thing to do,” said Wilson. While visitors won’t be able to get up close with the hives, a few hives can be viewed from the catwalk inside the museum. “Our intention is really to help the community around downtown in terms of pollination - we are surrounded by parks and yard gardens - and we wanted to help people understand that they should not be afraid
