As the Hive Turns

3

Posted on : 10:28 PM | By : Anonymous | In : ,

The continuing saga of the dreadful and dangerous situation bees are in was brought to my attention again today when I read that there is no such thing as organic honey in America. I'm pretty certain that it's possible to find it from a person who lives in the boonies and personally handles their own bees away from any agriculture, but you simply can't go to the store and buy organic honey. If you did, you were scammed.

I have put myself on a day of so-called bedrest (I think that term is ridiculous for most pregnant women who have children) and I hate bedrest. My first pregnancy I was on bedrest for a month because of almost constant false labor. So now I know that if I overdo it (like I did yesterday) I better sit down, which I am not good at. It certainly gives me lots of time to think though, and I spent most of the afternoon distracted by the thought of bees.

Bees around the world have been facing troubles for at least a year that we know of. Mysteriously bees began to disappear, and then it was found that they were actually dying off and we began calling it Colony Collapse Disorder. I love the words 'disorder' and 'syndrome'- it seems as though they are used for things that experts really don't know what is going on. In fact, Colony Collapse Disorder sounds much like Autism. It has a whole list of symptoms, and an even bigger list of possible causes, all which appear to be man-made rather than natural - pesticides, antibiotics, chemicals, agricultural methods... The solutions list is rather limited however.

Bees have a very good flying range, which is why it is impossible to make organic honey. Who knows where they are going and what toxic chemicals they are bringing back. Bees are the foundation of our diet. Without bees we lose every plant that is not self pollinated, which includes alfalfa-fed beef, apples, oranges, grapes and even chocolate. One of the issues is that most of these commercial crops are pollinated by commercial bees trucked around like little humming migrant workers, while native bees are getting wiped out when cities kill the native plant species that they need. Gardeners need to plant native flowers for the bees. For example, I can plant yarrow, which is native to BC, is also a valuable medicinal herb, and works as a companion plant for basil and any other plant since it repels insects and improves the soil.

Comments (3)

Glad to hear that you're on 'bedrest'! and that it all appears okay.

It's a shame as A types have to go so far as to push our bodies to spotting when carrying a precious life, huh? I was on bedrest for 3-4 months, now THAT taught me a thing or two about slowing down - physically and psychologically and spiritually.

As for bees, I've found this topic immensely depressing. It might not have the drama of other issues, but there's something so ecologically fundamental in what's happening here.

Me too Mon... I almost cried when I read it. I need to post something more uplifting to cheer myself up I think, but when I do my morning reading on the internet it hasn't been all that great lately. :P

Glad to hear you are taking it easy. I was on bed rest for 2 weeks with my second child. Bed rest with a 3 year old should be called being a captive audience!
I had the chance to finally meet my nephew's fiancee on New Year's eve. She is pursuing a degree in neuroscience and is doing research on bee brains. We had a brief discussion of colony collapse disorder. We talked about a few of the top theories on the 'why' of it but at a formal party really isn't the most conducive place for that kind of discussion.
Judy