Best Bees gets major buzz

On the scene at Martha Stewart Living photo shoot

I sought refuge from the brilliant, late-August sun in the cool blue and white of the gazebo at the Northampton Street Community Garden as I waited for the photographer from Martha Stewart Living Magazine to arrive at the garden to snap local bee scientist and entrepreneur Noah Wilson-Rich, Ph.D. of Best Bees, a beekeeping services company at 839 Albany Street. As I waited, I took in the urban Garden of Eden feel: the green lushness of the foliage, the riot of color and variety of the flowers, vegetables and herbs and the fresh fragrances of lavender, tomatoes and more.

Around 3:00 PM, independent, New York based Christina Holmes and an assistant met Wilson-Rich, Best Bees founder and chief scientific officer; Paige Mulhern, head of Best Bees' custom hive shop; chief operating officer Sean T. Cahill; and Bud Larievy, a longtime Northampton gardener and Washington Gateway Main Street board member for a two-hour plus shoot that showcased apiary innovator Wilson-Rich and his company in a three-page spread in Martha Stewart Living Magazine's April issue. Holmes and her assistant busily and meticulously set up shots, moving superfluous items out of view and setting up one of Mulhern's creations, a charmingly decorated, country-style hive to be photographed in one of the garden plots. Larievy explained how the Northampton Street garden was chosen for the shoot.

"We are the closest garden to the beehive group and their bees support the pollination of our garden and produce the honey that they harvest. They want to give us a hive, but the [Trustees of Reservations] regulations won't allow it. Interesting," Larievy said in an e-mail.

Best Bees brings hives to private homes, restaurants, office buildings and other settings. According to Wilson-Rich, beehives tend to be more successful in urban rather than rural environments, owing to the density of community gardens, parks and green spaces and the variety of plants. Even the lowly weeds that grow along sidewalks and in vacant lots can provide the bees with important dietary sources.

Now serving clients all over New England and in cities across the country including New York, Washington, DC, Denver and San Francisco, Best Bees puts its profits into its affiliated non-profit organization, Urban Beekeeping Laboratory and Bee Sanctuary, whose research is dedicated to promoting bee health and strategies to ensure the continued survival of honeybees, whose numbers have been gravely threatened by illness and other factors in recent years.

Wilson-Rich, Cahill and Mulhern might seem unlikely candidates for a bee-centered business given their earlier backgrounds. Wilson-Rich was born in Manhattan and raised in Connecticut in a family that was repelled by bugs, but developed an engrossing fascination with the socially-organized pollinators in high school. Cahill's undergraduate and graduate studies at University of Vermont encompass an impressive range of humanities and social sciences including German literature, political science, history, English and philosophy. In the course of his career and his travels, Cahill acquired a knowledge of commercial trade, import/export and government contracts as well as software coding, the latter enabling him to create Bzzz, Best Bees' data system.

Mulhern, a 2014 graduate of Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Illustration and Design, focused on bees in her BFA thesis. "When I started honing in on topics for my thesis, I found pollination to be fascinating and the interdependence between flowers and animals. Once I started delving into the topic, I became very passionate about bee decline. At first I thought I would be focusing more on the poetic aspect, but my piece started to take a turn toward the decline of honeybees as well as the magic of them."

She began at Best Bees as receptionist but soon rose to her current position, lending her artistic skills to provide unique hive designs for Best Bees clients. Mulhern initially went along to the photo shoot to assist Wilson-Rich, but photographer Holmes decided spontaneously to include her as a model. Mulhern quickly went home and changed into a demure, print dress. As an art student, she modeled for classmates frequently. "I was fairly comfortable with it, but it came as a surprise that day."

Despite the heat of the day and a few bee stings incurred during the afternoon, Holmes seemed to enjoy the assignment. She commented via e-mail, "It's always nice to capture portraits of those we are telling the story about as a main visual in the feature. I think Paige's natural look along with what she does for a living, effortlessly building these hives with natural elements, all tied together well. As the photographer, I'm also directing the visuals, so this was just a bit of an executive decision to make sure we had a nice portrait of them both to help tell the story."