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Above All, Bee Kind
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2015/12 - December | Photograph By: Marjorie Christiansen Photography
In the November issue we reported on the alarming disappearance of honeybees. In this issue we take a first-hand look at what’s happening to bees in our own
back yards.
Geared up in overalls, gloves, hats, and veils, bee farmers Kenny and Kathy Hayes, Laurel Managing Partner Marjorie Christiansen and I set out for the Hayes’ apiary (the bee yard).
But the sweet adventure turned bitter the moment we pried the lid off the first hive. The frames on which bees construct the familiar hexagonal honeycombs were empty except for a few wax beetle larvae that took over after the colony vacated.
There were no dead bees in the area. No evidence of foul play. They simply vanished. Worker bees can’t last more than 24 hours without their hive. So where did they go? Three months prior the hive had produced a bumper crop of wildflower honey. What in the world happened?
The second hive revealed the same devastating news, though a few bees buzzed the box, perhaps confiscating the honey left in the vacated structure, taking it back to the third and last hive. When we pulled the lid off that hive there were plenty of bees (we all breathed a collective sigh of relief) but there was no harvest honey. Was this in the process of suffering the fate of the other two?
The Hayes started out with eight hives a few years ago. Three remain. And after this revelation, only one is viable…maybe.
When Kathy saw the first empty hive, she teared-up and moaned, “CCD.”
CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) is ravaging the bee industry. She’d hoped living in the rural countryside of Franklin would be safe, but bees fly a five-mile radius. Somewhere in that radius the bees were collecting tainted nectar.
A century ago, American farmers grew multiple crops – corn, wheat, tomatoes, potatoes, etc. Today, agriculture has become monoculture. Farmers plant thousands of acres of one crop. This makes hives dependent on a single, pesticide-loaded crop for their existence. There is hard evidence that systemic pesticides are the CCD culprit (see last month’s article), but the EPA is slow to act.
What can we do to reverse this deadly trend? Write your congressman. Read up on CCD. Buy local, organic products. Plant a garden. Raise your own bees. Reduce pesticides in your yard. Donate to bee preservation organizations. Start a dialog with friends. Spread the word.
