Bees

So as most of you have heard the bees are dying. There have been numerous discussions about this in the media but, nobody really seems too worried. It could be some crazy bee disease, like “bee aids” or a parasite that is spreading through the bee community. Some examinations have been done and no conclusive evidence to the widespread decrease in bee populations is understood. Without bees we can’t have pollination and without pollination we won’t have fruits, flowers, and other foods. .. It could mean the infrastructure of the United States agricultural production could come to a screeching halt and change our lives forever. Just from bees dying. . .

I like bees a lot. They are really fascinating creatures. They create beautiful hives, have complex roles for their society, have a queen, look cool, have stingers, and kill all the male drones every year. There are 1000’s of different species and they create honey, one of the most perfect foods in the world. My grandfather use to have bees. He had some bee boxes and he would go and collect honey. Unfortunately when I was kid I was too young to help take care of the bees and I think he was worried I’d get stung and my dad would get mad. I really wish that he would have given me one of those bee hats and a smoker and sent me to the bee box to help him out. I hope someday I can have bees like he did and maybe I’d let my grandkids get stung by bees and look into a bee hive and gather honey that they’ll eat later that day on a piece of wheat bread.

So what spawned the writing of this post about bees is I’ve seen a couple dying bees recently. In previous posts I’ve mentioned the fact that I make moonshine. A few weeks ago as I was distilling in my backyard I saw a bee kind of hanging around the still and this was at night. From my understanding bees are at home at night sleeping in their cells and taking a break from flying around all day. So a few nights ago a bee showed up again. This one was really fucked up. Like the previous bee he was kind of crawling around on the ground and seemed to be definitely lost or something. This bee I noticed at one point was particularly close to my feet and was kind of rolling on to its back like it couldn’t get on its feet. I tried to flip it over with a leaf but, it just kept rolling back onto its wings. At some point I lost sight of the bee and I don’t know where it ended up.

The next morning I was in the kitchen and I noticed a dead bee on the cutting board. It wasn’t squashed or anything just lying there dead and not moving. Maybe it was sleeping I’m not sure. Either way this could have been the same bee or a new bee that was in a state of death around me. I’m sure you were like most kids and usually when you interacted with a bee it was buzzing around you, somewhat menacing considering the loud stingy sound it makes and you felt this fear. This fear of being stung and maybe instilled in you from Looney Tune cartoons that bees get into formation and chase you forming arrow shapes and you can only escape by diving underwater. Well now this was a new way to interact with this amazing creature. To be around it when it wasn’t in complete control of its airspace. Demanding you to leave it alone just by zig zaging around your head so you could hear its buzz and see its distinctive yellow and black stripes. It was sad to see these bees like this. So I don’t know what’s happening. I hope we’re not killing all the bees like we’re killing so many other things in the world: ice caps, whales, and each other.