Calling himself the “bee rescuer,” 52 year-old-Khaled Almaghafi runs a successful bee removal company in Oakland, California. He has been working with bees since he was a child in Yemen. “Most of my childhood was with my dad, watching him raising the bees,” says Mr. Almaghafi
Beekeeping is a highly respected and often family-run line of work in Yemen. Mr. Almaghafi’s family raised bees the traditional way, in hollow trees with hives made from bamboo. “But my dad, he was the first one to bring the modern style hive from Egypt to Yemen with the tin frame box — the American style hive,” he says.
As a Muslim, Mr. Almaghafi feels that his work is highly spiritual citing the Quran which cites that God told bees how to make honey. “You see how they dance, how they collect the honey, how they work,” says Mr. Almaghafi. “You feel deep inside there is a creator, created all those things and created us and the whole globe.”
