All the buzz...

I was listening to NPR a few days ago about the problems with the declining honeybee populations.

The story certainly concerned me being a nature lover as well as a botanist wannabe. But it also brought back feelings of nostalgia.

You see, my father used to be a beekeeper. He only kept about five or so hives. But still, it was enough to keep me entertained for hours watching them in their daily duties. It also offered me the opportunity to learn about bees firsthand. As a child, I was never afraid of various insects, spiders, and other things found in nature. Perhaps this exposure might have been the reason. While most girls would be screaming down the street after seeing a spider, I would take the opportunity to watch the spider.

Watching the bees also taught me early lessons about the environment and how so many things are connected to each other. This lesson was taught to me by the Blue Jays who considered the bee hives an "all you can eat buffet".

Beekeeping also taught me the lesson how we must care for the things around us. This was taught to me by watching my father tend his hives in the winter and taking measures so that the hives would survive until spring.

I have to confess that these feelings of nostaglia made me wish to have hives of my own. However, this would prove foolish for me, even fatal considering I have an allergy to bee stings. Who would have ever thought that a beekeeper's daughter would develop a bee sting allergy?

Anyhow, hopefully the bees will eventually come out ok from this environmental concern. In the meantime, I will keep a watchful eye out for them from a safe distance with epinephrine in hand.