Have you heard about Colony Collapse Disorder? This problem of the last few years in which huge segments of the world’s bee populations have suddenly died and vanished? This is a problem because if we don’t have honeybees, we don’t have pollinization. If we don’t have pollinization, we don’t have fruit. Or vegetables, or flowers. An enormous problem, with a number of reasons for this tragedy being proposed. One of the forerunners is the mega-farming practice of growing acres and acres of single crops, doused in pesticides. The bees binge, the bees die. What to do? You should read my friend Margie Haack’s wonderful meditation on bees , for one thing.
I’m delighted that, for some reason, I have a little population of honeybees in the front yard. My squash and pumpkins are being wonderfully pollinated. One plant has taken a hit from the squash bugs, because I can’t bear to spray them with even the organic stuff with those precious bees there…
So I was driving along this morning, listening to the BBC radio morning news, and I heard a great story on urban beekeeping. An organization (ok, it’s the UK, “organisation”) in England is encouraging urban beekeeping. For one thing, the more colonies, the better. Also, there’s such a diversity of pollens in the city, which makes the bees more resistant to pesticides and mites, it seems. On a culinary level, it apparently makes a very good honey. The London woman being interviewed this morning brought a jar of her honey with her, and the interviewer said that, were it a wine, she might call it “complex”. The urban beekeeper woman said that this is because the bees are feasting on such a wide variety of pollens in the city- neighbor’s flowers, flowers at the park… At her flat in London, she is keeping a colony of 50,000 or so bees. She’s only been stung once, and that was because she was lying under their box, taking a picture, and a bee got stuck between her and her camera. Fair enough. I’m allergic to hymenoptera- I think that includes wasps, yellowjackets, hornets…but not honeybees, I think… and I rival Winnie the Pooh for honey-love.
I learned this little rhyme as a kid- my mom said it to me, and it’s easy to learn, because each consequence hinges on the consequence before it. A good little thing to think on as we make choices, and as I think about the importance of bees around here.
| For Want of a Nail |
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For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail. |
