Winter Solstice 2020 is a turning point. Not only will Northern Hemisphere days be lengthening again but a Covid-19 vaccine is on the close horizon and election tension has eased (a bit). Even still, quarantine creates radical changes in our daily lives amidst all kinds of suffering. People have been asking me “what are the bees are telling us"? during this challenging time. Bees don’t stop for human quarantine.  2020 was a very busy urban beekeeping season for apoidea apiary, managing over 100 hives at peak.  Now that the bees are tucked in for winter, I’m sharing some insight I've learned from them.

1. DISEASE IS NOT THE END.  DISEASE IS A COURSE CORRECTION. 
Nurturing living things means facing the cycle of life and death. As a beekeeper, I've faced heartbreaking choices whether to intervene with sick bees or to let nature take its course.  These days, quarantine is a familiar bee management tool with ever-increasing pressure from new virus strains and invasive pests (aka. murder hornets).  Only out of struggle with disease came innovation that improved my practice of naturally-breeding northern hardy bees.  I believe Apoidea's hive mortality rate has stayed at a low 5-10% (national mortality rates are 4-5 times higher) because I've always tried to adapt as best we can in the face of disease.  One notable preventative technique I've applied to our management as a response to winter loss is installing custom built “moisture-blankets” filled with pine shavings for our hives.  These winter blankets help the bees stay much warmer and drier during cold weather which gives their immune system a boost.  The low calm hum of huddling bee life in winter is one of the very best sounds to a beekeeper. 
How has this year restructured your life for the better through all the disruption?

2. AN ERRATIC CLIMATE IS A CLEAR CALL FOR HELP.
The disrupted climate patterns of 2020 made beekeeping pretty tough. This past year, an abnormally warm soggy winter led to a cold “polar vortex” spring.  This sequence made for a very long and intense swarm season.  The frigid weather of early May rapidly shifted to a hot dry summer and the plants which the bee's depend upon for nectar went dry.  The 2020 fall honey flow was the lowest I've seen in 16 years of beekeeping. Hive starvation threatens this winter but the biggest issue is that our summer's drought coincided with a record number of hurricanes spawning from a warming Atlantic Ocean.  The marker of climate change is the rapid intensification of 10 of these storms.  Evidence of extremes shouldn't be ignored.   
Efforts to regain a stable climate need to move forward amidst all other current challenges.  

3. NATURE IS INTUITIVELY SMART.
Honey bees rely upon many preventative and therapeutic practices to stay healthy because their immune systems are not fortified with antibodies and it's not easy to social distance in a single hive with 50,000 sisters who can't wait to "go out shopping" for floral goods.  One fascinating "social-immunity" behavior is the bees' collection of plant resin, called "propolis," to line their colony's nest and create an internal antimicrobial environment.  In essence, bee's are utilizing plant mechanisms for infection prevention by applying a mix of phenolic compounds, flavonoids and terpenes. Recent scientific studies have demonstrated that increased collection of propolis by bees happens in the presence of certain disease challenges demonstrating their intuitive medical intelligence.(1.) Propolis is a very smart discovery and adaptation by Western honey bees (Apis mellifera) that may be an effective preventative treatment for some humans maladies, as well.(2.)      

Get outside and let nature be your guide in 2021! 
Christina Joy Neumann