Poohs' Bees

Did you know that my buddy Winnie the Pooh has a health problem?
He does and it is a condition unknown to his kind to cure.

Bears as you know love honey. It is an important part of their diet.
They can survive without it, but it is a delicacy they crave that has benefits to them they do not know of. They just know they like it and will do sometimes unbelievable things to get it.

Today we have a problem with our honey bees. This has been well documented on CNN and the nature channels. It is a condition that has been brewing for some time but in the last couple years has really become a serious problem.

You may not think the simple honey bee is of any consequence to you, but you could not be more wrong. Our food supply is dependant on a simple bee to complete the cycle. You can have the best soil, seed and substance but without pollination you have nothing.
Our agricultural industry depends on bees to pollinate the crops and keep the cycle of life continuing thru the seasons.

Whole businesses are set up to breed, mature, rent and deliver 1000’s of bee hives to farmers who depend on them to generate the required pollination to have thriving crops.
If the bees do not pollinate, the crops do not grow. Over the past couple years there has been a dramatic turn in the health of these hives. The bees are sick and the hives abandoned and left barren as the bees die off. Not only is this a problem for the farmers who depend on the bees, but the business of bee hive growing and renting is suffering as well. Many of these businesses have gone out of business or are so deep in debt trying to recover from the losses they see no good way out.

Science believes this may be some sort of parasite or other disease. This is a part of the problem but not the root of the problem. I recently went to Northern Alabama to see the EWTN studios and shrine. I spent a couple days there. The shrine is about 45 minutes from the studios. On one of my trips between the two I took the back roads and ran across a sign that said “Homegrown Honey For Sale”. I turned into this rustic two story farm house and waited as the owner helped another customer. After a few moments she left and the owner who was an elderly man and I sparked up a conversation that lasted at least a half hour.

We spoke about a lot of things, but we spent a good amount of time talking about this bee hive deterioration problem. This man has no such problem with his bees and hives. He knows the life cycle of the bee, its’ patterns, its’ likes and dislikes, it is his business and he knows it very well. What came out of this conversation was a microcosm of our world today. You see the problem with the bees is they are over breed, over transported, over worked and over stressed. This man told me that bees require rest. They rest during the night. Coming home to the hive at dusk and resting until dawn when they start their day.

The bee hive industry like a lot of our industries today is stressed with the want to do more, make more, and earn more. By this creed they often transport these hives in the early evening and mornings. The problem with this is the bees are disturbed from their rest and once delivered are confused and tired and don’t want to do the work nature has granted them with. In addition to this the bee hives are constantly moved to new sites adding to their confusion and interruption of rest. This makes the bee’s weak and more suspect and subject to the disease and parasites science suspects. But the root of the problem is this over stressed life cycle the typical worker bee is suffering from.

Bees are hard and loyal workers. When the workers are stressed the rest of the hive hierarchy suffers as well. When the leaders grow weary the hive goes into a quick and painful demise. One that may seem like a disease or parasite, but is actually borne from our own quest to make more for ourselves regardless of the outcome to the world around us and that in nature that share it with us.

This is a serious problem. If we don’t get the bees healthy we may very well see our domestic food supplies dwindle dramatically. If this happens we will be more dependant on imported food. Less domestic food supplies and imported food means much higher prices at the grocery store which none of us need right now.

Nature works in mysterious ways too. In life’s cycle every little cog forms the gears that turn the wheel. If one cog breaks the gears will still turn but not for long as more cogs will break from the stress of the load and eventually the gears give way and the wheel stops its’ turn.

Let’s not break any more cogs; our gears are stressed to the hilt already. We need to gear down, slow down, look at our actions, analyze or problems and set out on a new course of repair and reconciliation. Study the life of the honey bee and how it relates to our well being as a nation. It is a simple thing that has complex issues related to it.

Hopefully the bee industry can learn from this excess at the sake of the bee and get healthy again. It is critical this happens. The food supplies and diversity we have enjoyed for generations will be gone…just like the honey bee and its’ hive.

In the meantime Winnie sends his love and hopes you hear this message. He really misses his daily batch of honey…even if it upsets a few farmers.

Take care and be wise in your use of nature in your daily businesses. If exploited nature will turn on you and make your world a miserable place to try and live.

By the way, the honey I bought at the farm house in Alabama was the best I have ever had. Thank you sir for sharing your honey, your story and your advice with me.

In His service:
© Bryan A. Stross
March 25, 2008 10:30 am EST