Georgeff's passion for bees emerged on his three-acre hobby farm in Acton, Ont. He's owned this bit of country life for almost 20 years, and has tended to it in tandem with a busy professional career as a senior IT executive with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Noranda and OMERS.

There eventually came a time when it was necessary to scale down the farming operation, he says, and get rid of the chickens, turkeys, and goats that his children once tended. Alas, the children grew up and went off to university.

Serendipity intervened, however. Six years ago a nest of bees made a home in his composter, and Georgeff decided to make the residence permanent.

'Bees have fascinated me ever since I was a kid,' Georgeff says. 'They are so interesting from both a biological and organizational perspective.'

Their mating habits are particularly intriguing, he says. 'Only about 20 percent of the hive is male, and they hang around all summer, eating honey, and getting in the way. They're only kept around in case the hive needs a new queen. If it does, the virgin queen will fly 80 feet in the air, and only the fastest drone gets to mate with her -- but then he dies. So it's better to be a slow drone.'