To Bee or not to Bee, that is the question.
This is as close as I am willing to get to our beehives. Even for you.
We rent these bees. Can you believe that?
In my previous Office Girl life I rented movies and the occasional u-haul.
Renting insects is a new one for me.
The beekeeper brings them to our field and braves the bee stings to look after them. All we have to do is keep our distance, and pay the annual rental fee.
Bees pollinate the vegetable plants by transferring pollen from flower to flower. While wind pollination does some of this job, there is nothing like a directed effort by hundreds of these little darlings.
This direct pollination is especially beneficial for our crops such as cucumbers and squashes (members of the cucurbit family – work “cucurbit” into the conversation and amaze your friends!)
However, there has been a problem across North America in recent years as bee colonies have been mysteriously dying off in increasing numbers.
ABC News recently published a story on this problem. For more information on the issue of disappearing bee colonies and the resulting threat to the food supply, go to
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/honey-bees-dying-scientists-suspect-pesticides-disease-worry/story?id=10191391
