Rising Stars: Meet Kasia Buchta of La Crescenta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kasia Buchta

Hi Kasia, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My adventure with honeybees started a couple of years ago when I received a beehive as a Christmas present from my husband. This opened up a whole new world to me, as I had never learned anything about bees besides being scared of their stingers. Luckily, it was during the pandemic, and I had plenty of time to educate myself about these bees’ lives and behaviors, and to gain as much hands-on experience as possible before getting my own bees. This also involved overcoming my long-lasting apiphobia (fear of bees). Interestingly, my phobia began when I was 7 years old, after watching the movie “The Swarm” (1978), a horror film depicting killer bees invading Texas and killing hundreds of people. Although this movie is considered one of the worst films ever made, it was scary enough for the little girl I was at that time. It didn’t take me long to realize how amazing honey bees are, so I immediately became fascinated and started exploring their culture, documenting everything with my camera. It was an intense and inspiring time when I could share everything I learned with my growing social media audience. I also realized that I was more fascinated by the bees themselves than by what I could get from them, so honey or pollen were never my focus. I preferred to be a witness and an ambassador of their awesomeness and importance. My urban apiary was slowly growing, and my garden flourished with fruit (thanks to the bees). I never considered this as a business, and soon enough, I decided that this would be my lifelong passion. And there is so much to be passionate about! Honeybees create a very sophisticated society where everyone works for the well-being of the colony. They can create their own queen and are intelligent enough to recognize human faces, as well as find their way back to the hive from up to 5 miles away. They communicate using scents and movements (dances) and can guide other foraging bees to a new source of nectar with incredible precision using the so-called “waggle dance”. Drones (male bees) do not have fathers (they are created from unfertilized eggs, so no sperm is involved), but they do have a grandfather (the queen’s father). The structures they create using hexagonal wax cells are considered the sturdiest and lightest structures and have been used in architecture and construction by humans.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
This wasn’t necessarily a smooth road, as I chose to stray from many standard practices such as re-queening, splitting, swarm prevention, and treating varroa mites. Questioning these mainstream approaches hasn’t always been easy, but it has proven to be incredibly rewarding. I’ve noticed significant improvements in the health of my bees since adopting a more natural route—with less disturbance and interference in their lives. It’s been a while since I last saw sick or infested bees; clearly, letting nature take its course is paying off. This journey requires a certain amount of courage to go against the conventional education offered by most beekeeping courses or handbooks. But I am thrilled to have found a community of like-minded beekeepers around me, and it’s heartening to see this niche group growing worldwide.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
What sets me apart in the world of beekeeping is my exceptionally relaxed approach combined with a deep respect for the incredible resilience of honeybees. My philosophy is rooted in a belief that an easy-going style can only flourish if the bees have strong, adaptable genetics. We refer to them as “feral” bees because they have thrived without human intervention, developing the robust survival traits necessary to manage pests, parasites, and diseases on their own. This resilience is the core reason I choose to keep only feral bees in my practice. I believe that nurturing these remarkable creatures allows us to foster a harmonious relationship, providing me with the joy of beekeeping while also supporting the health and sustainability of our bee populations.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
For me, bees are this perfect connection with nature. Their buzzing has healing properties… Being with them, watching how they fly, how they organize their society, and how smart and respectful they are, makes me more and more in love with nature. For that reason, I want to respect them back and treat them as free creatures. I never want to stop learning about them from them. If I can only share this with other people, it’s all that matters to me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kasia.and.bees
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kasia.and.bees
• Other: https://linktr.ee/kasiabuchta

Image Credits
Kasia_IMG_0020 Photo: Mariah Jeffries
IMG_0014 Photo: Mariah Jeffries
IMG_6804 Photo: We Save Bees
All other photos by Kasia Buchta