To me, those sound like old-fashion common-sense gardening practices (at least the bees) rather than anything over-the-top. Gardeners have been using beneficial insects probably almost as long as there have been gardeners.

I have been thinking about ways to introduce birds-of-prey into my garden, especially to work on the vole population. I've talked to a few different "bird experts" about it, but haven't gotten nearly as much input as I had hoped. Sometime soon (another one of the many things that's "on the list"), I hope to put up a few telephone poles and build nest foundations like I've seen in some bird/eco projects. Unfortunately, I still don't know what the likelihood of success is.

Bumping an old post. I have dabbled with a beehive.
They kept moving into my house so I set up a hive out back. I was a bad bee keeper and they moved out.

But, I strongly encourage people to consider this. I would pursue getting more, except my neighbor has 6 hives, so I have no shortage of these fella's flying around.

A bee hive is really not a "dangerous thing" in the way one might think of it. After about 4 weeks, I could easily walk up to the hive with no gear. I wouldn't let kids do it, but until you are within 2 feet of the hive you are unlikely to disturb them much at all. If you don't stand in front of their entrance you can touch the hive. The cardinal rule of course is not to "agitate" or kill one.

When setting up the hive (moving a giant colony out of the house) we of course crushed more than enough to "piss them off". In full gear, its an interesting experience being in the middle ofa bee attack. The literally slam off your suit. In that case, when the hive is riled they will easily follow you 100'.

They don't just get riled by day to day activity though. My neighbor mows about 8' I would guess from the hives with no suit. When he cleans the grass closer to the hive he does where gear just in case.

Personally I look forward to every spring watching his bees come and hammer away at my Clover. They really are fun and neat to work with.

If you were thinking you wanted to add some kind of farm animal to your garden, Bees are sweet! , I have chickens and goats. Bees are the easiest of them all in terms of maintenance. But it is different you don't feed them (except in special circumstance), you don't water them (but they do need a nearby water source). You do need to check them on occasion to make sure the hive is well, not overcrowded and doesn't have hive beetle, or wax moth in dangerous proportions. Otherwise that is about it. The biggest challenge is getting the colony established.

A word of advice do not check the hive wearing shorts. I thought my bees were calm and didn't mind be being around them.