TERRA CEIA, Fla. — Each frame of a bee box hosts a tableau of events unfolding simultaneously.

Each is a little civilization and Matt Davis is checking on them. 

“They are a big part of making sure our ecosystem thrives,” said Davis.

These wild honeybees are his rescue animals.

He and his wife’s company Noble Nectar Apiaries removes bees and re-homes them. It’s an alternative to exterminating infestations. One of their new bee home spaces is under a massive oak tree behind a horse and a stable on Terra Ceia.

It’s going to be the site of their first ever Lolla-Bee-Looza. The festival all about our bee friends.

Matt Davis of Noble Nectar Apiaries showing frames of bees from a bee box. (Virginia Johnson/Spectrum Bay News 9)

But before Davis gets close-up, he needs to suit up. Then smoke up with a bee smoker.

It’s a stainless-steel container with a little air pump. Davis lights up pine needles and closes up the smoker, pumps the bellow and smoke shoots out of a top nozzle.

Smoke is a pheromone blocker for bees.

“Basically, what it does is it kind of interferes with their ability to talk to each other,” said Davis.

It also stirs the bee’s appetites for honey. “Which helps them not be so grumpy,” Davis said, smiling.

It’s important the bees be “calm-ish” so Davis can check the hives.

“Make sure we had a queen that’s actively laying in eggs. We look for pollen and nectar, and we also look for signs of mite infestations and just the overall health of the bees," he said.

Even more important to Davis: helping people remove bees even with financial difficulties with their new non-profit organization “The Bee Musketeers.”

“So it’s a win-win for everyone,” said Allison Davis. “The person who needs it gets it done and the beekeeper still gets paid, and then we started to working alongside some of the people in the city to get the houses repaired afterward.”

The festival will help raise funds for donation-based removals, as well as outreach for the next generation of potential pollinator protectors.

“It feels good to help young people to live alongside bees and other pollinators, and not consider them a danger or a pest,” said Davis. “It’s important for our food and for the ecosystem in general.”