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I was delighted to find the overgrown meadows at Emmons Preserve in Kennebunkport full of Honey Bees yesterday. I have lamented, several times here, the small numbers of Honey Bees I have been seeing this summer…I had seen perhaps two until yesterday. At Emmons that is particularly odd since they have an active hive in the meadow just down the Batson River Trail from the Conservation Trust building. There have been lots of bees at Emmons all summer, but they were all Bumble and Wood Bees. Yesterday they were mostly Honey. I am not privy to the workings at the Conservation Trust. I don’t know if they replaced the hive, or if the bees were dormant until now…or what happened, but the difference a week made was remarkable.

Sony HX400V at 124mm equivalent field of view. ISO 80 @ 1/1000th @ f4. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.

And for the Sunday Thought. Honey Bee populations are threatened in many ways right now. Besides all the known disorders a hive can fall prey to, there is Colony Collapse Disorder, where the worker bees suddenly abandon an apparently healthy hive…living queen, honey, and all…during the winter when they should be resting. No one knows why. Some recent studies are pointing to the effects of a common class of fungicides used on a wide variety of crops, from soy beans to apples, and in many lawn products. There is still a lot of work to be done before we really know what is going on, but no one disputes that Honey Bees are in trouble…which means, in fact, that we are in trouble. Honey Bees are the primary pollinator for an amazing variety of crops we depend on. Can you imagine a world without apples, almonds, fennel? Trucking hives of bees to where they are needed for intensive agriculture is a big business today. The fields of North Dakota are pollinated by bees from Texas. Take a look at the list of crops pollinated by bees on Wiki. Those marked essential are at risk if the populations of Honey Bees continue to decline.

Which is one of the reasons I pay attention to the number of Honey Bees I encounter in my time in the field. Not that there is anything I can do about it, or at least, not yet. It could be this is one of those “problems” caused by our attempt to maximize yields in our fields. Actually, I find the whole practice to trucking in bees to where the crops are so concentrated that the native bees can’t handle the pollination load to already be somewhat troublesome. Asking for trouble. When you combine that with the chemicals used on intensive crops…well…you just might get Colony Collapse Disorder.

I believe, as I have said before, that it is our job, a part of our essential spiritual nature, to care for all that lives on this earth. The way I read the Bible story and my experience of the Spirit both tell me that we were made to be the keepers. We can not deny that our attempts to keep ourselves fed have transformed much of the surface of the earth into crop factories. And that our attempts to keep the crop factories at maximum yield have effected more of the web of life than we currently in know in ways we do not know or do not understand. Yet. And that is an important _yet_. It is easy to feel both guilt and despair when confronted with a problem like Colony Collapse Disorder and the decline of Honey Bees. But, we are the keepers, and though we do not know enough to always foresee the consequences of our actions, we do learn. We adapt. We change. We solve problems when we see them.

Colony Collapse Disorder and the decline of Honey Bee populations is a problem. It is a spiritual problem. One that should engage our spiritual nature as keepers until we find a solution. It might be as simple as a change in the chemicals we use…or as complex as reinventing agriculture to eliminate the kind of crop factories that we currently rely on…but, where there is a will, there is a way. And the will is spiritual. Has to spiritual.

I could recommend that, today, as part of our Spiritual Sunday, we all go out and try to find a Honey Bee to admire. You have to start somewhere, and, in the spirit, that feels right