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Many people have been asking me lately about the bees and this cold. Makes sense, they are cold, I’m cold, everyone’s cold. We are having our first real winter in several years. As a beekeeper, it is ingrained in me to record the weather. In the topsy turvy times of climate change, it is easy to forget what winter is supposed to be like in the north. For those of you that need a reminder of winters of yester year and are curious how bees make it through winter, check out this blog post from 2019. Another notable mention in that post is our efforts to raise awareness about pollinator health and its connection to industrial agriculture. At Beez Kneez, we have been talking about this since we started in 2010. It can be utterly overwhelming to think about this alongside the long list of disasters we are experiencing. When I feel that despair, the weight of the world, the futality of the fight, I look to honey bees and their ability to survive in the winter. Their reilience and instinct to survive is not only inspiring, it seems impossible. And not matter the season, an individual honey bee, all alone in a hive cannot survive. Year after year, using instinct, collaboration and numbers, they keep each other warm and alive through the darkest days of winter. They instinctually know that the sun will return to perpetuate the hive for generations of bees that they will never get to meet. This may sound hokey but its true and I really hope we figure out how to do the same before its too late.-Kristy Lynn
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