Not to Bee

A few weeks ago...

Ok, I think it was a few weeks ago.  Let's be honest here, sometimes I have trouble figuring out exactly how long it has been since we have done certain things on the farm.  I am sure other "busy" people have this happen to them too.  

But, as I was saying...

What seems like a few weeks ago, we finally decided it was time to check on the status of our bee hives.  We entered the cold months feeling pretty good about all three of our hives and thought we had a pretty good shot of having at least two out of three survive to see another season.  It was the first fairly warm (and calm day) of the year and it would have been a perfect time for the surviving bees to take what is known as a "cleansing flight."  So, I went out expecting to see a few of our friends leaving the hive to do their thing.  What I found instead was...

Nothing.

No apparent activity.  So, I got brave and knocked on one of the hives.  That's usually enough to get a bit of a buzz out of them.  And, I got no response.  After a bit more inspection, we found that we had lost all three hives again this winter.  Now we go about the process of cleaning out the hives and collecting evidence to try and figure out what happened so we can try to prevent it the next time around.  I suppose the good thing is that there is honey to be collected - and we do like honey.  But, this is not how we wanted to go about getting it.

We will certainly get them going again in 2022.  We like having them around too much and we appreciate the pollination services they provide!  But, knowing we can get new bees this year doesn't do much to take the sting (sorry) out of this past year's losses. 

Hopefully, our native pollinator populations had a decent time of it these past few months.  We have done what we can on our small farm to provide appropriate habitat and locations where they should be able to successfully over-winter.  But, nature is like this - sometimes a population gets everything it needs and has no problems with disease - and sometimes there is a challenge that makes it less easy to survive.  The difference is that humans often do things to tip things too far to the "challenge side" of the scale.  Our meager efforts at the Genuine Faux Farm aren't likely enough to counter the weight of that challenge.  So, how can we be surprised if natural pollinator populations don't just bounce back because we want them to?

Can you find the bumble bee?

And, I guess we haven't been surprised that our bumblebee populations (for example) have become less robust since we first started the farm.  And, I guess meaning well isn't always enough - but I sure wish it carried a little more weight than it seems to.  It's enough to make me wonder why we care so much and why we try so hard.  It's a normal reaction.  If you feel like you'll probably lose, no matter what you do, you have to wonder if you should even put in the work.

Still, we will approach 2022 on our farm with the eternal optimism that is necessary for people like us who still think they might be able to make a difference.  We'll plant borage.  We'll leave areas undisturbed for habitat.  We'll let the dandelions bloom.  There will be sunflowers, and zinnias, and marigolds and basil.  We'll plant more clover and we'll do the things that seem to help our pollinators.  We will do it because we HAVE seen some successes over the years.  We will do it in hopes that more people will join us in trying to make a difference too.

Our farm will have wild spaces.  We will do what we can to make it an oasis.  A pollinator paradise.

And we may still lose each battle.  But that doesn't mean we'll stop fighting the war.  Because hope is a powerful motive.