Jasmine Joy Sarria refers to the honeybees living in the 20 or so hives she maintains in Waimanalo and Makaha as her “buzzing babies.” It’s an apt description, given that she rescued and raised tens of thousands of the insects over the past five years.

Sarria, 34, launched her business, Beelieve Hawaii, in 2012, offering bee removal and pollination services. She occasionally sells honey to private clients and her nonprofit foundation offers educational programs.

Bees first caught Sarria’s attention when she began working at Honey Girl Organics on the North Shore, which offers a line of skin-care products using honey, beeswax and pollen from on-site hives. At the time, Sarria was in an entrepreneurship program at Kapiolani Community College, and with encouragement from Honey Girl owner Anthony Maxfield, the self-taught bee wrangler started her company.

“I was just completely fascinated (by bees),” she said. “I don’t think there are any other creatures that I connect with on a powerful level like that.”

She fields between three and five phone calls a day from people seeking bee removal. She does not use pesticides or other chemicals. Her fees range from $150 to $400.

One recent case involved bees that had colonized a rattan chair on the second-floor lanai of an Ewa Beach home. Using extension and A-frame ladders, Sarria slowly lifted the chair over the railing and down to her pickup truck for transport.

“The hive will stay together if you move them very gently,” she said.

Afterward, she posted a photo on Instagram (@beelievehawaii), calling it a “honey throne.”

In cases involving an immovable object, Sarria’s job is to coax the colony to leave the hive. Relying on a combination of intuition, skill and experience, she first locates the queen, who is distinguished by her larger size and long, tapered abdomen.

Once the queen is captured and gently placed on a hive box, the rest of the swarm usually follows within an hour.

The rescued bees are brought back to her apiary at Honest Greens Farm in Waimanalo, where they are housed in an array of stacked boxes, each carefully labeled with the date and location of capture. Inside each is a series of honeycomb frames that yield honey and beeswax.

Each colony consists of a single queen, hundreds of male drones and 20,000 to 80,000 female worker bees. Sarria inspects them every two weeks and keeps detailed logs.

When farms call for pollination services, Beelieve Hawaii will set up a hive on site for fees starting at about $60.

When working around her apiaries, Sarria moves with a slow and deliberate calmness. She said practicing yoga helps her maintain serenity and focus. Bees can pick up on fear or excitement, she said, which can elicit a defensive response.

She foregoes protective gear, unless performing bee removal, and wears a long-sleeved shirt, baseball cap and long pants.

“For me, it’s a meditation,” she said. “You have to emit a peaceful, calm nature.”

Honey Girl Organics’ Maxfield, who is president of the Hawaii Beekeepers Association on Oahu, described Sarria as a “precocious young lady” full of enthusiasm.

“She just kind of took to it and went off on her journey and exploration of bees,” he said.

With her Beelieve Hawaii Foundation, Sarria is teaching third-graders at Makaha Elementary School about bees, pollination and teamwork in partnership with the nonprofit Hoa ‘Aina O Makaha, which operates an organic farm next door to the campus where youngsters learn to care for the land while following traditional Hawaiian values.

Sarria maintains a screened “bee house” at the farm where kids can observe activity within the bee colony.

“What they are is nature’s alchemist,” she said of the social insects. “They’re turning nectar into liquid gold and they work for free. Their life span is so short, too, and here they are, pollinating most of the food that we eat.”

Besides working on a children’s book about bees, Sarria’s dream is to travel and connect with beekeepers from around the world, including the honey hunters of Nepal who dangle from cliffs on rope ladders to collect honeycombs. She also hopes to expand the reach of her foundation and one day launch a line of honey-healing salves with her boyfriend, Robert Allen, also a beekeeper.

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BEES VITAL TO SUCCESS OF HAWAII AGRICULTURE

Honeybees are not native to Hawaii, but have been here for more than 150 years and play a vital role in local agriculture pollination, honey production and queen bee exports.

The state’s farms offer the highest honey yield in the U.S., totaling more than 100 pounds per colony per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Across the isles, there are 356 registered beekeepers, with the majority on Hawaii island, according to the state’s bee registry.

“Your zucchini, cucumbers, pumpkins heavily rely on bees to pollinate,” said University of Hawaii Honeybee Project research technician Scott Nikaido. “Without that, you can see huge decreases in production.”

He said more young people, college students and retirees are taking an interest in beekeeping as a hobby and for profit.

The Honeybee Project at UH’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources was launched in 2008 to research best beekeeping practices for Hawaii’s climate in response to varroa mites, which threaten the honeybee population. An outreach program offers a beekeeping program, while a “bee hui” made up of trained volunteers offers education and community outreach.

Visit uhbeeproject.com to learn more.