I saw two different kinds of bees yesterday. I had just read in the paper/heard on the news/saw on the internet Einstein's famous (or at least now it is) prediction that if the bees go, we've only got four years left. Apparently some mysterious agent is causing colonies to collapse, and the media is only too happy to start "the sky is falling" machine. Truth be told, their mesmerizing chant was working its charms on me as I was sitting on the patio soaking up a bit of sun yesterday. "Could this be how it ends? Wait. Isn't there always somebody crying "it's the end of the world"? Still, no bees means no more food for animals to eat because the plants need pollination to procreate." And then a big black and yellow bumblebee floated by. A few minutes later, a little regular bee inspected a newly laid sara dump.
After a nice brunch at the diner down the street, we got home and there was a message from one of the tenants at the other building. Apparently, the big bumblebees are building a hive under the deck. They did this last year and we just gave them room, but now there's two girls living in our old place, and they are not really the kind of girls who can hang with the "bumble bee hive on your patio" thing.
I wouldn't worry too too much about the imminent demise of bees, the ones on the tenants' patio notwithstanding.
15 comments:
What did Einstein know anyhow? He was just babbling.
The problem is, we rarely can tell if it's just Chicken Little or actually Cassandra until after the fact. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
I think all of these dire warnings should cause us to pause and consider the ways in which we waste/destroy/abuse the world in which we live and for which we are dependent for life - however, I am less and less inclined to join the throngs waving their arms and enjoying their emotional fits over the imminent demise of the world.
But, since I know who killed the bees under a deck in Montreal, if I'm starving for lack of food next year, I'll know who to blame. ;)
I read that it's the radiation from cell-phone towers that is destroying the bee population.
In deference, I will change my ringtone to a buzz.
What will I do without my tea and honey?
What is also being (beeing?) left out is that these die-offs happen every 10-15 years or so.
Last year, weren't they predicting that killer bees were going over multiple and swarm over North America? Those bees sure get a work-out in the Armageddon department.
I read something similarly apocalyptic about bananas. Some scientists said we have 7 yrs left of bananas and then they are going to be extinct.
Much of the current wailing and gnashing of teeth by the talking heads du jour remind me of nothing so much as medieval priests shrieking at us to "Repaint, and thin not!".
(nerk, nerk).
Well, if the world does end we'll all just move in with you guys, as you have bees. You have room right?
If I remember correctly -and I haven't bothered to research this for this comment- there *is* a devastating parasite which is infecting beehives. The collapse of pollinating insect populations would be horrific.
Come live in Australia. We've got plenty of bees here. You hear them humming in the background when you go into a rainforest. But who wants to live in a rainforest? :P
i rwad an article in our newpaper yesterday...great sunday feature, btw...end of the world and all. but the theory i saw was similar to what dickybird saw. the one they mentioned was that it was cell phone signals messing up a bee's radar. could it be another urban ledgend in the making?
when it comes to bees, i still live by what my mom used to tell me when i freaked out about them as a kid.
leave them alone and they'll leave me alone.
You can call the extension service n they will help you move the bees.
I'm a gardener so I take this shit serious. It's not that the sky is falling but I dunno maybe we should pay attention when things get whacked n try to figure out why before it gets more whacked.
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