February 15, 2018 5:30 am
Life, News 
Susan McElroy-Knilans stands in front of her homemade pollinator houses in her backyard on Thursday, Feb. 8. The pollinator houses give all native pollinator bees a home. They are made out of stuffed straws or hollow sticks. (Photos by Tori Benavente/Post-Record)
Susan McElroy-Knilans and her dog, Mazel Tov, sit next to her skep beehivees on Thursday, Feb. 8. Knilans makes her skeps with straw she cuts from Camas parks, with the permission of the city.
Susan McElroy Knilans holds a queen bee cell found in a now empty hive. The queen bee hatches from their cells and then go off to start another colony.
A honeycomb inside of a skep beehive. When the honeycomb is created, it is soft and white before bees use propolis, a glue-like substance, to seal it.
Bees fly in and out of a hive in Susan McElroy-Knilans backyard on Thursday, Feb. 8.
A failed skep beehive made by Susan McElroy-Knilans. The outside of the hive is coated with cow manuer, clay and wood ash that allows the hive to last up to 150 years. The hive failed when about 50,000 of the bees inside were poisoned by a pesticide used on plants in the area.
Susan McElroy-Knilans lays out honeycombs from last year for the bees. Once bees strip the honey, the wax can be melted and made into candles.
Susan McElroy-Knilans makes her own skeps out of tall grass straw that she cuts down from nearby parks.
Six years ago, after spending the majority of her life avoiding bees like they were the plague, Susan McElroy-Knilans found herself rooted in front of a bee hive with about 20 other people who had enrolled in a biodynamic beekeeping class.
The teacher, Michael Thiele, a researcher and biodynamic beekeeper, instructed the class to stand very, very still, and to hum.
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