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Khaled Almaghafi

is one of the few city dwellers I know whose main source of income comes from working with bees.

Depending on the job, Almaghafi is paid $90-$350 to capture swarms and bees that have nested in trees, walls and roofs. Extracting the bees can be tricky. He sucks them out with a special vacuum that gently deposits the insects into a wooden box. Later, he transfers the bees into a proper beehive, and they become productive members of his bee colonies. "I call it recycling bees," he said.

When Almaghafi was growing up, his father was a beekeeper in Yemen, where honey is considered to be a kind of medicine.

he can't pass on the family business to his son because the child, now five years old, is allergic to bee stings

"You know, it is our duty as beekeepers to do [this work]," Almaghafi said while sipping his coffee, whose berries had no doubt been pollinated by bees. "You feel good providing that service. To continue the cycle, to feel connected to the land."