I'm going to share some sobering observations, with the intent to hear from you what you have observed, in your gardens, this year. I had a conversation with another beekeeper, seeking input after my recent hive check and my sense of awkwardness and my awareness of a much bigger picture, beyond my garden.
I know by now that, when I get this deep gutty growl in my stomach, that something is going on. Something is brewing and calling for my attention.
The big puzzle is falling into place and revealing a sobering truth.
At the same time, this sobering truth has lit a fire in me, a curiosity to follow the trail of events, to gather your observations and to look at the findings with wide open eyes, senses and infinite possibilities. We have choice: look away and sleep-wander in ignorance or look at what is and take action.
I come from a long lineage of strong women, healers, visionaries and rubble women. When our gardens, our lives, our children are in danger, we women awaken the bitch in us. This is one of those moments.
Here are my observations, random pieces of a bee-puzzle that starts to reveal a pattern. Are bees the canaries in the coal mine?
I checked my thriving hives 2 days ago and found the following (a 180 degrees different scenario from my previous check only 4 weeks ago):
1. Starkly reduced population (where is everyone?)
2. Almost no food storage (where did the honey storage go?)
3. Robber bees (which is natural, if there is a food shortage; colonies will rob the storage from another colony)
4. They had thrown out the drones rather late in the season (end of September)
5. Queen is there but no brood
My conversation with another beekeeper made it clear to me that a) I will have to treat my future colonies for mites (which I have not done so far, thinking that they can handle it; they can't)
b) Where in the past, one mite treatment in spring was enough, now we need to do 10 treatments in a season. (why is that, what's out of balance?)
c) Crops didn't make fruit: In my garden, we had squash flowers, but no fruit; I did have cucumbers. In his garden, he had cucumber flowers but no fruit; he did have squash. He mentioned massive damage to corn crop (burnt leaves). We had flowers on our fruit trees in spring, but in total only 3 apples (yes, 3 apples from 7 apple trees), no plums, no cherries; they all blossomed beautifully and got no frost, but no fruit.
d) I learned that we didn't have nectar this year. Only pollen. We had well flowing nectar early in the season (June and July), but hardly any nectar later in the season. This would explain why squash flowers didn't turn into fruit: if there is no nectar, there is no incentive for pollinators to go there. The flower will wilt and the plant not bear fruit.
Everyone who sees the beautiful fruit trees blossom will, like me, think everything is fine. It's not. And I only learned about this so very recently. I had no idea! Everything looks picture perfect, but an invisible looming perpetrator finagles what can come from our gardens and fields.
I have never seen anything like this.
If there is no nectar, bees cannot build the fat and the storage that they require for winter. The colony weakens and will be more susceptible to mite overgrowth. Bee colonies, in their, despair, will rob each other.
While I'm feeding them sugar syrup right now, I know that one of my hives is basically doomed. The other one needs a lot of energy contributions and spirit-lifting. (I would be very happy to receive your energy contributions for my honey bees and all the honey bees all over the world. Just send them energy, free from judgment)
And, as I'm feeding them now, I'm wondering who and what the invisible enemy is, exactly, that disrupts our gardens, pollinators and food chain. I have been asking tons of questions, and of course, I've been making myself wrong for not treating the mite nuisance. My nagging awareness tells me there's more. There's much more to this. What are the bees telling us? The canary in the coal mine warns the workers, via its death, that there is gas, and they better all get out if they can. What are bees telling us? Are they the canaries in our gardens?
This morning, when I woke up, a light bulb went off: chem trails. Who is creating them? What is the stuff, exactly? Can it disturb plants in their growth? Can it contain specific substances that prevent plants from making the vital nectar that insures pollination? There is weather finagling, climate finagling, and much more finagling. If anybody had the (most dark) agenda to shrink food supplies, get farmers out of business so they can buy the farmland cheap and control food production, guess what? They would stop plants from making nectar, so they would not be pollinated while at the same time destroying pollinators, all of this without leaving a trace.
We need to wake up! Our observations are vital. Nowadays, everything is being made about science. Science, right now, might be too slow. WE are in our gardens. WE notice. WE observe. WE nurture. WE harvest. WE create bounty with nature.
Only 200 years ago, there were hardly any agronomics. We were the farmers and gardeners. We would observe and make choices based on that. We would convene with our neighbors and talk about our observations. In the village, we would collectively take action and celebrate our bounty and harvest. I see US as the true power. No one can tell me what my child requires, better than I can. No one can tell me what I need to do in my garden, better than I can with my questions and awareness. No one can tell me how to spice my soup or paint my painting, because this is my knowing, my awareness, my journey.
My grandmother raised my mother during war, deprivation and extreme hardship. There was no science to tell her what to do. She did it, with her heart and soul and her knowing! And she did great!
My grandfather crossed different species of apples, and no science was there to tell him how to do this. He did it, with his love and deep care for his family and nature. He achieved a fantastic result, and his apples have been, to this day, the best apples I have ever had the privilege to taste.
A world without bees is NOT on my watch. Children not being able to eat fresh (natural) berries and apples: NOT on my watch. Synthetic food: NOT on my watch.
I'm starting to collect evidence, and I would love to hear your observations.
And here's a warning for fact-checkers: these are my personal observations. You cannot fact-check that. I own them, and they are my copyrighted material. And I swear all in here to be true. Better back off.
