On Bees and Camels
A new report on the state of honey bee populations in Canada that survived the winter is rather alarming. I've noticed a distinct absence of bees this summer, but I did not expect a 58% mortality rate in Ontario.
I have been following the growing anxiety over the plight of honey bees for the past few years with some interest, as scientists attempt to isolate the cause of this rapid decline.
I have been following the growing anxiety over the plight of honey bees for the past few years with some interest, as scientists attempt to isolate the cause of this rapid decline.
To a permaculturist, this is a good example of reductionist science scrambling to identify the last straw that breaks the camels back, and figuring out a way to get rid of said straw.
The remaining 10,000 straws already heaped upon the camel seem to go completely unnoticed by our academics as they bicker amongst one another, and feverishly search for that one factor responsible for this entire unfortunate situation.
When some professor finally writes a paper stating the obvious fact that it is the cumulative weight of a multitude of environmental stresses that are the contributing cause for what ails the worlds bees, he'll probably be hailed as some sort of genius and given a medal.
Maybe humanity needs to wake up to the fact that bees are not pollinating robots you can simply ship all over the continent on the back of a truck and deploy them into great swaths of mono-cropped countryside.
They are not factories that exist for the sole purpose of converting sugar syrup to honey.
Bees are living creatures with a highly sophisticated social organisation. They require appropriate shelter and nutrition, just like we do.
Maybe this is the problem. We as a Western society seem to have forgotten these principles as they apply to ourselves. We've adulterated our own diets to the point where it make's us chronically ill.
We live in petro-chemical boxes, one atop the other, breathing the same air, living under the cold light of the fluorescent tube, and wonder why such a large portion of the population is medicated.
We seem to think this is normal, and so we treat the bees similarly.
Bees prefer to live high up in a tree. It's safe from predators, and away from mould and damp.
Bees swarm as part of their natural cycle. It is the only time a queen gets to experience the sun. Did you know swarming only happens on a sunny day? Did you know other animals (like us) experience seasonal affective disorder if they don't get enough?
Like us, if bees eat the nectar from only one type of flower all the time then they get sick.
Like us, if bees are in close proximity to other sick bees, then they get sick too.
Like us, if bees are exposed to low levels of chemicals developed to kill us then they get sick.
Like us, if bees are taken from their preferred home, and left out in the elements to fend for themselves then they get sick and tend to die.
Like us, if bees are artificially inseminated to produce genetically narrow populations, and disease breaks out, it doesn't end well.
When someone asks me what I think is killing the bees, is it pesticides and herbicides? Cell phones? Industrial bee keeping practices? Pests? Treated timber? Predators? Loss of bee habitat? I say yes. All of these things and more.
So what is the solution? I think it is to honour the bees and be good stewards of the land. Provide the bees with homes they need, not those which are convenient for us. Develop diverse polyculture habitats that provide a wide range of food sources, and environmental niches for all sorts of living things.
In highly connected systems, stability comes about through complexity.
Check out what Jacqueline Freeman has to say about caring for bees:
If you think she's interesting, then check out an extended discussion she has with Paul Wheaton on the subject:
No comments:
Post a Comment