Bee

Bees are central to the unnamed beekeeper’s life at the monastery. Their need for water places the apiary near the river; his work with the hives, in turn, gives a fugitive newcomer a quiet, durable place in the community without drawing him into its commercial or guest-facing duties.

The Apiary and Its Work

The beekeeper first joins the work when he sees Brother David tending the hives and helps move frames. Brother David, approaching eighty, later retires and recommends that the newcomer take over. The bees thus become the means by which the stranger moves from wandering the grounds to a regular responsibility.

He works at the apiary every day, learning the craft and tending the hives quietly and well. Under his care, they produce excellent Grade A honey. Their need for water also gives the apiary a practical setting close to the river, linking the daily labor of keeping bees to the monastery’s surrounding landscape.

Honey and Monastery Commerce

The honey serves several purposes within the monastery’s economy. It is used in the monastery’s own brand of ale, sold to tourists in eight-ounce jars, and offered online. The hives therefore yield a product that connects the beekeeper’s skilled labor to both the community’s own use and its trade with visitors and customers beyond the monastery.

The beekeeper declines to take part in those commercial activities. He wants no role in selling the honey, serving retreat guests, working in the kitchen, or staffing the gift shop; he wants only to tend his hives. The contrast distinguishes care for the bees from the business built around their honey: the monastery benefits from the harvest, while the beekeeper keeps to the work itself.

The Bees and the Beekeeper’s Place

The monks regard him as their best beekeeper, but he remains socially and personally anonymous. After more than four years, they still do not know his name; they call him the beekeeper, while the Latino monks call him El Colmenero. They are surprised when he first speaks to them in fluent Spanish. His competence with the bees is the clearest role he accepts in the community, while his refusal of other duties preserves his distance from it.

The bees are not simply a source of income in this account: tending them is the newcomer’s chosen daily practice and the condition of his place at the monastery. Their practical needs lead him to Brother David; his sustained care earns the retiring beekeeper’s recommendation and produces honey valued by the community. Around that steady work, the monks speculate about the stranger’s past, but the apiary offers a concrete identity where his name and history remain unknown.