What started as three hives in the families yard is now four yards in three counties and growing. How many bees is that? On average a hive has 60,000 bees. That is a lot of mouths to feed.
Our hives are placed strategically in the rolling hills of Central Kentucky. Near native flowering plants, we not only get the best flavors, but provide the pollinators.
Who do you call when you need help relocating a hive? We could not do our work without our Bee People. Community collaboration is part of the foundation of Bee Calm Naturals. Click the links below to find out more.
Kentucky State Beekeepers Association
Kentucky Queen Breeders Association
Bluegrass Beekeepers Association
The majority of “bee loss” that you hear about on the news is related to Colony Collapse Disorder and yes, it is as bad as it sounds. Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD, is when the worker bees just up and leave the hive. The worker bees are the life force of the hive and without them, there is no food for the queen, the larva, or the handful of nurse bees that they leave behind.
There have been many proposed causes of CCD, many of which have human causes such as deforestation, and loss of critical flowering plants. Links have also been drawn to a class of pesticides used not only big agricultural operations, but also in homes. A 2013 study linked below, concluded that when used in current common concentration the class of pesticides, neonicotinoids, can cause weakening effects on bees. Now weakening doesn’t seem all that bad. However when you consider that bees can fly up to 8 miles a day and use the earth’s magnetic field to navigate back home, weakening might seem more serious.
While there is no exact perpetrator to blame, one thing is for sure: the worldwide bee population is declining, very fast.
Local gardeners and landscapers can help by planting native plants that pollinators, like bees, will love. They can find safe or natural alternatives to store-bought and potentially harmful pesticides.
