There are some beautiful, touching and out-right hilarious observations in Erika Schickel’s LA Observed blog post entitled “The Swarm.” She relates her experiences dealing with a swarm of bees that has overtaken her sister’s home in Pasadena. Here’s the Virtual Farmgirl relevant passage – complete with lessons about environmental protection, farming and nature. In the passage, Erika has just been reminded that it is illegal to kill bees in California:
“Of course, as a gardener, I know that bees are beneficial insects. But I never knew I could be cited for Apicide. Bees are the tiny, efficient hinges that our entire agricultural system swings on. Without them our state’s farming infrastructure would collapse. In fact, bee keepers have reported a strange disappearance of bees from hives across the country recently and this mysterious die-off is deeply alarming. I thought of the tens of bees that had died at my hands, crushed beneath the glossy pages of a gourmet food magazine and the irony smacked me upside the head. No bees cross-pollinating the almond and fruit trees? Then no almond pear clafouti. It’s that simple. I felt a pang of guilt realizing that not only was I endangering our delicate ecosystem, but also the future of desserts everywhere.”
The graph links to a February story in the New York Times, “Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Keepers in Peril,” about the bees disappearing from dozens of states around the country “at an alarming rate.”
[Photo links to a story from the University of California, Riverside, last spring with tips on how to keep bees from choosing to reside in your home.]
Virtual Farmgirl 