While the therapy bees focus on making honey, as bees naturally do, Raba especially enjoys working with the bees that live in the cabin.

"As a beekeeper, there's always something you have to do — check the colony, add frames, harvest honey, whatever — but in the [bee] therapy cabin, you're in total calm, and can really enjoy it," he explained.

Raba didn't start keeping bees for therapy.

"When I bought this farm, there were tons of walnut trees here," he said. "The walnut trees would bloom, but no nuts came. My dad told me, 'Son, get yourself some bees.'"

Nobody in his family knew the first thing about beekeeping, so he enlisted the help of beekeeping legend Antu Rohtla.

Rohtla was the one who suggested Raba use the cabin to house bees, not visiting family. Initially, he was skeptical.

"I didn't understand why I'd put bees in a cabin — I was thinking about people," Raba recalled. "Rohtla said, 'No no, put the people in there too.' And I thought, 'This is crazy, why would I put people and bees in there together?'"

Now, he's the proud owner of a bee therapy cabin, with four hives that hold around 100,000 bees. When the hives under the seating are opened, the tiny room fills with buzzing bees.

"Some stay on the frames, of course, but the young ones want to explore," Raba said, adding that he makes sure the room is completely bee-free when needed.

Similar little cabins are common in Eastern Europe, especially Slovenia, where local beekeeping traditions were added to UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list in 2022.

In Estonia, the trend has grown over the past five to six years.

"You feel the buzzing — it's meant to relieve stress," Raba said. "And everyone is incredibly stressed these days."

He added that apitherapy — or bee therapy — should allegedly also benefit those with allergies, lung conditions or breathing issues.

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