Think Like a Bee

This is a less than interesting title, but a necessary one, nevertheless. Bees, which are critical for our food system and beautiful plants in our neighborhood, continue to struggle to thrive and survive. Think Like a Bee is at an intersection a-buzzing with our Pollinators in the Neighborhood plant giveaways and neighborhood education events. We…

Dear readers, I have temporarily hung up my beekeeping hat for writing. Perhaps it was the bees themselves, or the Bee Goddess, who guided me during those dark COVID years of hopelessness and fear. When the whole world shut down and I was no longer needed in the workplace, I fled to a tiny house…

Friends, thank you for your care of our pollinators, workhorses of the food system we enjoy. Join the Hive Mind on Nov. 29 to give to Think Like a Bee and our upcoming projects for 2023. This past year we have been working closely with the City of Albuquerque to secure grants and fund a…

From the newly minted Middle Rio Grande Times: Posted on May 29, 2021 by collaborators Pesticide is an overarching term meaning a compound which kills fungus, bacteria, insects, or weeds. Insecticides target insects while herbicides target weeds. In this article, we address two pesticides, glyphosate and neonicotinoids, that have widespread deleterious effects on humans and ecosystems. Manufacturing of…

Recently I returned from a 40 year alumni reunion for the Junior College I attended in Kansas.  As always happens, the bee tenders eventually find each other. Bee stories fly through the air as varroa mite grievances and swapping of best practices ensues. My college mate Ken, has been keeping bees for many years, despite…

It’s been a moment. My apologies, bee readers, for my delinquency in posting even one small note for a whole season! High summer has come and gone, and now we are approaching the Fall Equinox. The only excuse I have for neglecting Think Like a Bee is a summer job which took my attention and…

Greetings my bee friends! Spring is fast approaching and with it, the lovely reappearance of the bees, birds, bugs and butterflies—-our trusty pollinator friends! There is a wonderful seminar coming up for you backyard enthusiasts or wannabees. It is offered by the Xerces Society. Please sign up to learn more about how we can support…

Friends, I have chosen to share in full a wonderful primer for how to support pollinators and all wildlife during the upcoming difficult winter months. The Farmers Almanac 2021 says we are going to have a very cold Nov/Dec then move into the usual moisture and snowpack (which is becoming more reduced each year) for…

If you want someone to show up and care about something or someone, ask a nurse. If you want someone who has time and will go the extra mile for a something or someone, ask a retired nurse. Terry Dettweiler contacted me last year about doing a special project for her University of New Mexico…

“Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual”(Beethoven) The intersectionality of these three practices—bee tending, yoga and music—have kept me for a lifetime. All of them contemplative, bringing me fully in the present when I am engaged in any of these. They are the place where I tend my soul. Imagine being able…

It’s been a week, bee friends. In the merry month of May, I left for two weeks to visit my parents in Ohio, secretly gloating. I had split two hives before I left and since my splits took the old queen with me, the girls left behind needed to make new queens. One hive made…

Recently I was hiking up Sandia peak in the snow. I began to notice hundreds of ladybugs crawling across the snow. Most of them frozen or buried as the snow shifted. What on earth? I began to pick them and as they revived from the heat of my hand, they crawled across my hand, traveled…

Dear bee friends, SB103 on restricting the class of insecticides called neonicotinoids died on the New Mexico Senate floor last week. We are extremely grateful for all of you who made calls, wrote letters and otherwise hounded your senators to make it this far. There were senator absences at the final vote and the odd…

Tomorrow SB103 on restricting the class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, is headed to the Tax, Business and Transportation Committee – https://nmlegis.gov/Committee/Standing_Committee?CommitteeCode=STBTC. Please call or contact these senators. Neonicotinoids have been widely indicted for acute bee kills and cumulative toxins that build up over time in the hive and bring a hive to its demise. Early this…

So, this is why we do what we can…calling legislative committees, hounding politicians, planting trees, tending flowers, supporting pollinators, growing food and roses, teaching children about their earth mama. Listen to the amazing poem by Amanda Gorman below, then call your New Mexico Senate Rules committee members and ask for them to immediately set up…

Hi Friends, I wanted to update those of you who are willing to support a few bills that will protect pollinators, along with their habitat—our soil, air and water. A good rule of thumb…what’s good for the bees is good for the humans! SB 103 Restricting Use of Neonicotinoid Pesticides with Senator Mimi Stewart This is…

Think like a bee is involved with a legislative bill in the New Mexico senate this month which would regulate neonicotinoids. In case you don’t know, the European Union, due to beekeeper pressure, has already banned neonics, given their surging bee kills from this class of chemicals. Here’s the facts: Bees and other pollinators are vitally important and at risk…

2020 has been a long, weird year. Due to COVID, Think Like a Bee needed to rethink all of its usual buzzy, busy hive activity in the community. We went to “Sheltering in Place” mode and worked virtually —from Board meetings to events. A highlight was a morning with Marnie Rehn at the Bachechi Open Space and a summer collaboration with…

Come to find out, bees are inherently and relentlessly local. Native bees might wander 1-3 feet from their nest. Honeybees can fly up to a five mile radius, but usually stay within a mile. And so I noticed. Where I live everyday. The New Mexico I love and traverse, from the mountains to the rivers…

One of my deepest griefs during this pandemic has been the inability to sing with others in a room—working out difficult patterns, rhythms, textures, dynamics and notes with other voices. My choir master, Matt Greer, and the Board of Quintessence quickly made the difficult decision to abort our March concert 2020 and suspend our choral…

Due to my work to co-produce a Rio Grande Watershed documentary in 2018 —citing the critical importance of water and habitat for saving our pollinators— I felt this article should be recounted in full. We have no idea that we live on the brink…our beloved overused river is sick. It’s not going to get any…

This lady blog is about one enchanted night spent with my spouse up on the Sandia Crest, overlooking the twinkly lights of Albuquerque, NM. Before your mind races to Camelot and other places…Think ladybugs. My partner’s birthday wish was that we sleep on the mountain top. We hiked in under the starless mantle of a…

It has been hideously hot here in New Mexico this past week. Ninety eight degrees at the height of a New Mexico summer is not unusual, but 105 degrees Farenheit? I’ve been harvesting and processing honey during this time. I regret not doing this at earlier cool, summer temperature of 90 degrees F. In triple…

These days, to stay sane in these times of spiking COVID 19, I pull out happy memories of travel. In May 2019, Kenneth and I made a pilgrimage to our holy honeymoon grounds in southeastern Utah— Red rocks country. Bluff, Utah is home to a year round population of about 320. There’s the locals, fiercely…

Bee friends, tired of being “sheltered in place”? Have you watched tv until you can no longer digest all that information? Are you sick of puzzles, games, twiddling your thumbs, quarreling, sitting in your own backyard and living room? Expand your horizons! Join us in the garden and backyards of many people and places. Spark…

This weekend is Solstice! On this auspicious day, June 20, 2020 10am Mountain Time, come and join a virtual interview from the Bachechi Open Space with Director, Marnie Rehn, and Anita Amstutz of Think Like A Bee. What are watersheds for and why are they important for bees and food? “In the end, we will…

In the wee hours of the morning my husband and I drove slowly up the east back of the Sandia Mountains in New Mexico. Halfway up, I spotted a tiny rainbow colored figure along the side of the road. “Oh no!”, I cried. “A Western tanager”. Just the week before, my friend and I had…

Thus entitled was the April 2020 The Rolling Stone’s issue that featured Greta Thunberg and all things climate change. The children’s issue. Is it as bad as they claim? It’s worse. From bugapocalypse to acidifying of the oceans to the extinction of a million species. Viruses are only a new expression of climate change and…

These days it seems the whole planet is on a vision quest together. Some more aware of this than others—that we cannot, will not be able to go back to the “way things are”. When things were spinning so fast, we couldn’t jump off if we wanted to. Now we’ve all debarked. Together. For those…

It appears that nature continues on. Unabated. Oblivious, in a way, to the human drama unfolding. Today on my solo, socially distanced walk in the neighborhood, I heard the familiar loud buzzy sound that honeybees make when swarming. My mentor TJ Carr always said that Palm Sunday was THE time for bee swarms to begin.…

Years ago I met a man at a writing workshop who had also come under the enchanting spell of honeybees. He had begun to keep bees at a time when unbeknownst to the average beekeeper, a deadly scourge had begun to spread among the beehives. During the winter of 2006-2007, some beekeepers began to report…

Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.”                                                                                              – E. O. Wilson Welcome Spring! It is the season of crocuses, bee swarms, longer days and the return of the migrating birds. Even as we are quarantined and more and more isolated from our daily human connections and habits, earth still…

Reducing Pesticide Use & Impacts Thank you Bee City USA/Xerces Society, for this invaluable and timely article. (Photo: Xerces Society / Jennifer Hopwood) The vast majority of invertebrates serve vitally important roles in a healthy environment, including controlling pests, pollinating flowering plants, and providing food for other wildlife. Only a very small number of invertebrates…

Think Like a Bee, a bee education and advocacy non-profit (501(c)3 based in Albuquerque, will host a fun(d) raiser at the Flying Star restaurant on Rio Grande, in Albuquerque, NM this Thursday, 4-8pm! Come on down with your family and enjoy a meal and a little Bee Love! 10% of all proceeds will come to…

When you fall in love with being alive,life loves you back. What doesn’t loveto be loved? What doesn’t feel humbledand ecstatic with the luck of not being leftunrequited? Love the sun and it lets you seeits green and growing edge moving throughthe darkest human history like a forest movesrenewed across an ashen void. Falling in…

Donate now to our annual fundraising event for pollinator protection! Think Like a Bee is a tax exempt, registered 501C3. All donations are tax deductible

Before the end of this bee season, I found a laying worker hive. Any beekeeper will know that this is the worst possible situation. The queen’s demise has left the hive without any clear direction—or brood for future generations. They will surely die. Eggs of laying workers. To fix a laying worker hive you have…

Recently I was climbing Raven’s Ridge in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, which surround Santa Fe. As my husband and I walked along in silence, leaves crackling under our feet and the crisp smell of Autumn in our nostrils, I heard a hum. Barely audible unless I stopped stock still. But, yes, it was there.…

Harvest time. It’s been a lush Spring, with flowers galore from the rains. I’ve begun to harvest some of my girl’s honey. Emily Dickinson celebrates bees, clover and honey…often. I wonder why I never knew about her connection to the bees? The pedigree of honeyDoes not concern the bee;A clover, any time, to him (ahem,…

Nothing new. It’s the economic system we have proudly built in the West. Anything that is gift, given freely by Mother Earth, is quickly snatched up by hungry profit seekers. It is codified, standardized, chemicalized and dominated. A system that has industrialized almost every part of our food system, destroyed and pillaged the natural world…

This is the month for the bees – the heavy, sweet month – with much of the promise and the failure of the crop year in it. (The Old Farmers Almanac, 1944) It is the outgoing month of June. In the bee world, it is Pollinator month. Summer Solstice. The month of honey harvesting (if you…

Many people are changing our food system, bit by bit. They get precious little recognition for creating healthy, sustainable and poison-free, local “living Food” webs. Unlike famous chefs such as Anthony Bourdain, Jamie Oliver, Paula Dean or Michelle Obama, who had a garden at the White House, they toil invisibly. I want to honor all…

I promised you I’d be exploring ways to find hope in the face of this monster tsunami of climate chaos facing our lovely home and all her creatures. But many days I feel despair. I avoid writing my blog. I don’t want to report on another project or initiative or grant funded green project. Are…

My last blog was all the bad news about global climate change and how it is fueling weather changes. A twin to Global Climate Change is the fossil fuel-driven big agriculture industry. It has become a massive enterprise of government subsidies, driving a monoculture of crops, drenched in chemicals—particularly glyphosates (herbicide) and neo-nicitinoids (insecticide). Our…

I want to talk about climate change for the next few blogs. Don’t tune out. It is a freight train coming down the tracks, and most of us are blissfully blind and deaf to it’s consequences. We are quite happy with our lifestyles thank you very much. Bad and devastating, ugly consequences are beginning to…

This is good. I began thinking about honeybees collective decision making, especially at the beginning of Trump’s reign or mis-reign of power with all his admirers and supporters. I’ve spent time reading Dr. Seeley’s book Honeybee Democracy, talking bees over dinner with him, and blogging about how honeybees make decisions. Bees have much to teach us.…

(Albuquerque, NM, April 24, 2019)-– Do you know anyone who called an exterminator when they discovered a swarm of honey bees? If so, that is especially sad because honey bees are responsible for every third bite of food we consume and they contribute $15 billion to American agriculture each year, and as any beekeeper will…

Think Like a Bee Friends, Spring has sprung and it is time to love on your bees! I am shamelessly plagiarizing the most recent newsletter of BEE CITY USA/Xerces Society because they say it so well. (SEE BELOW) Sam Droege is a member of their Science Advisory Board and tells us how important it is…

They go together like pigs and mud…well, you get the idea. LISTEN UP! Master gardeners, green thumb hobbyists, beekeepers and garden variety humans who love to grow things… I just found out about an amazing opportunity at our annual New Mexico Bee Meeting in February 2019. Our very own Bernalillo County library has free seeds…

February 14 was St. Valentines Day. Usually I spurn these “made for Hallmark” cultural holidays, finding them to be silly and sappy. It doesn’t mean I don’t observe it with my husband. But we don’t buy “stuff”. We usually just try to have a nice candle lit meal or some good wine and conversation—just to…

I ask you, can we call a bee “cute”? I stand accused. I have used “cutesy” images of bees for my blog. It seems to appeal to something deep inside us. Something cuddly and accessible that even a child could love! But does that truly speak to the nature of bees, whether honeybees or native…

At the end of this past year, 2018, a small article showed up in the Opinion section of the New York Times. I was grateful a bee friend of mine caught it and sent it to me. Paul Stamets, a renown mycologist, had written briefly on his study of fungi as a way to reverse…

My first remembered dream of 2019 was of bees. I kid you not. I do dream, but haven’t been remembering them much of late. But this one was blessedly clear, imprinted in living color on my memory as I awoke. I was left with a peaceful, joyful feeling as the dream washed away in the…

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Or 80,000 honeybees to raise a village. Or a “hive mind” to solve the bee crisis. You, my intrepid readers and supporters, are that Hive Mind. Many acting in one accord for the good of all. Thank you friends, for your incredible generosity and support…

Winter Solstice is upon us. An earthly turning. Daylight melts into the darkest night of the year…even as humans kindle their artificial lights in this “Season of lights”. I have many reflections about this magnificent, unequaled, intelligent planet of ours as the year comes to an end. My thoughts come on the heels of COP24…

It’s the end of the year, 2018, and I’m feeling somewhat sentimental as I remember the long, warm, late summer bee days of light.       Now it’s fireside days…we huddle for warmth, kindling twinkly lights in the windows in expectation of the darkness that has been creeping slowly towards Winter Solstice…    …

Do you know the watershed in which you live? Here in New Mexico, Albuquerque is located in the Middle Rio Grande Watershed. This River was named for its grandeur and size. Today the Rio Grande continues to support agriculture, recreation, culture and the health of human and all biotic life, though she is shrinking. The…

Sometimes I remember that I am not in charge at the most basic level. These wild creatures teach me to stop obsessing, to learn to live in sync with what is, and most importantly, to fail. To allow death. I am learning to let my heart lead me with my beekeeping. To live with what…

I spent the whole day Sunday with my bee buddy and good friend, Sarah. We were in the hive yards, mitigating varroa mites—testing and treating. There is actually nothing worse than seeing a varroa mite on your bees up close. Like Frankenstein, they are bloodsucking little beasts, disemboweling bees and then sucking the life out…

Recently I learned about German forester, Peter Wohlleben, who wrote,“The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate — Discoveries From a Secret World”. As a forester, fresh out of school he was required to fell trees and spray them with insecticides. Something in him resisted. Doing his own research, he found that…

So. First the bad news. We did not receive the #HiveMind grant for creating pollinator wildflower corridors. Thank you all for your support and cheering us on. Truly, you made a difference! The good news is that Think Like a Bee and other bee community members met with key players from the City of Albuquerque…

Hive mind (noun) a notional entity consisting of a large number of people who share their knowledge or opinions with one another, regarded as producing either uncritical conformity or collective intelligence. I’m sticking with the “collective intelligence” part of that definition. Hive mind is like bee crowdsourcing—pulling together all the little brains and best physical…

It’s summer time and the sweet elixir of nectar is flowing…Honey has now been processed and is available for purchase. My girls have been generous. The honey comes from organic farms and my backyard. It is truly phenomenal in it’s taste and texture and color. I am selling this as a fundraiser for Think Like…

Bee Friends, I have been on a very, VERY long trip this past month. Logging over 1,450 miles, I have been driving the highways and byways of the Eastern United States.   I was disturbed by the spraying and mowing of the vast swaths of medians and shoulders along our interstates.   I passed endless…

Huzzah for June 16-24, Pollinator Week! This was designated once upon a time by the U.S. Department of Interior. It was a day when top officials understood the critical importance of bees for our food and survival. See the Pollinator Partnership, largest nonprofit in the world dedicated to promoting the health of pollinators—critical to food…

…that sometimes two parallel worlds that we live in converge, collide, intersect or dove- tail nicely. That happened to me with the coming together of my work in the beeyard and the writing of my newly released book entitled, “Soul Tending: Journey into the Heart of Sabbath”. I keep bees on the fly, blog by…

Sometimes life hands you an unexpected gift. When it does, you may not recognize it as such at the beginning. You might even wonder if it is a gift. Miraculously I was handed such a gift in the summer of 2017. Hanging out at the Farm where my bees are kept, it was the end…

Last week I attended the ABQ Beeks meeting, thronging with new and returning beekeepers. We heard about the nasties—varroa mites and American Foulbrood— by a special speaker. At the end of the presentation, he referred to honeybees as “livestock. My hackles went up.   The rise of industrial beekeeping, with the massive migration of hives…

WARNING: This will not be the most pleasant and cheerful of bee blog posts….I must talk about the ugly but important reality. I cannot deny it. Like the current state of politics in this country…deny to your detriment. This is the reality. Beekeepers are finding out that we can no longer ignore varroa mites in…

Bee friends. Forgive me for being away so long. I’ve been on the road and distracted by many things. As I pondered what to write today, I decided to use an article that came to me from a friend. As you can imagine, I collect random tidbits about bees. Friends and family email me, stuff…

PARIS (Reuters) – A French court suspended on Friday the license for two pesticides made by Dow Chemical, citing uncertainty over environmental risks including their effects on bees. Can you imagine this happening in the U.S.? In another amazing citizen triumph, the Australians demanded the end to neonicotinoids, a major bee killing chemical used in…

  As spring encroaches in fits and starts, it’s time to think of ways to boost your pollinator habitat. One thing that’s not so easy to do here in the southwest because of the lack of water, is grow wildflowers. But if you are able to keep one little patch watered, the honey is amazing,…

Half of my bees are lost. Dead. It’s the national average these days. 50% losses after the winter. Mites? Chemicals? Lack of food/habitat? Likely all of those things. As Mark Winston, 40 year bee researcher and professor of biology at Simone Fraser University, wrote in Beetime.. We are prone to accept death by a thousand…

The New Mexico Beekeepers Association is offering an amazing opportunity at our Annual meeting this weekend. How we as humans can learn to think like a bee! The event is entitled: Hive Mind: Decision-Making Secrets of Bees. Dr. Thomas D. Seeley, will be joining our hive mind here in Albuquerque—to talk about bee communication, the…

Since I’m too lazy to write an in depth blog today, I will leave you with two very short amazing videos showing a unique collaboration between the natural world and humans. You will see tribal men on the trail to find the honey of Africanized bee hives. You have to understand, in the western hemisphere…

In a blog entitled “Elites Don’t Understand Human Nature, But it’s Time They Learned” ,  Joe Brewer , a complexity researcher who specializes in culture design explores the mess we are in as humanity. He wonders at the fact that our society would allow the powers that be to destroy all that we hold valuable.…

It’s all I have to bring today – This, and my heart beside – This, and my heart, and all the fields – And all the meadows wide – Be sure you count – should I forget Some one the sum could tell – This, and my heart, and all the Bees Which in the…

As the New Mexico solstice moon ripened into a sliver this longest night of the year, i dreamt, cozy in my down comforter, next to my beloveds. I was not alone. I slept alongside my bees, suspended in a heated, glowing fist of sleep. I dreamt of a new year, trembling on the horizon. In…

Blessed Holidays All! As you consider end of the year planning and giving to those things you believe in and want to see continue on the planet and in your ‘hood, please remember the bees! If you missed our 2017 Summer Pollinator Week swarm funding event, I invite you to consider Think Like a Bee as…

Thinking like a bee is a daily adventure. These days, the exponential rise of backyard beekeeping is on my mind. It’s interesting that human consciousness now includes a fascination and even compassion for the humble honeybee. Many, many people are eager to delve into the mystery and joys of beekeeping. But if drought continues to…

This past week I had the distinct privilege of visiting Silver City, New Mexico at the invitation of my bee friend Susan Clair, the force of nature behind our two year beekeeping certification program here in Duke City.  She has moved down south and now is working her magic to organize a Bee City in…

The war on bugs has been going on a long time. It is making humans and our earth sick. Sadly, the chemicals impact the whole food chain. All the way to the top. And unfortunately, the bugs are losing…though many humans are cheering their extinction. Ultimately, they are only the first in a chain reaction…

These past weeks, I have been trying to prepare my bees for winter. Colony collapse has become very real for me. I find in these waning Autumn days that beekeeping has lost the charm and childlike joy and wonder of my first love. At the end of the season, I am in the slog, fighting…

Every day a new assault. On common decency and human honesty. On truth. On health and safety for all beings. On this beautiful planetary garden that is pure grace and abundant gift. On the most vulnerable among us. On institutions that have served to check obscene greed and community devastation. You name it.  Along with…

…I’d want to head up to Heartland Farm in Pawnee Rock, Kansas. A farm from the past, a farm for the future. A place of rest. Peace. Kindness for all living beings. Recently I visited this Dominican sisters retreat center/working farm. I was greeted by the Sisters, Jane, Mary Ellen and Imelda, and Adela, the…

There is currently an amazing exhibit at the 516 Arts Building in Albuquerque,New Mexico @ 516 Central Avenue downtown. It will be there through November 1, 2017. If you haven’t made your way down there, you must. Valerie Roybal, visionary artist, is also an Albuquerque backyard beekeeper. She gets it. The beauty, the mythology, the…

Fracking Rio Rancho, the meeting to determine which would prevail: the Stoddard Ordinance, written for the oil and gas industry, or the Citizen Ordinance, written for public safety, went like this… The September 21 Sandoval county commissioner’s meeting was not only flawed, it was a sham, a farce, a public shame. An unpaid, well informed,…

Fracking has come to many of our backyards here in central New Mexico. Rio Rancho and Sandoval County commissioners are getting ready to pass a fracking project without citizen consent. Follow the money. Apparently it speaks louder than the people. Time to stand up for our water. Water is irreplaceably precious. Here in New Mexico,…

Please apply. Evidently, arable land is shrinking and the average age of farmers is about 57 years old, with 1/4 of farmers over 65. That’s not good news for tomorrow’s food. The Rio Grande Community Farm is an incubator for new farmers. According to Sean Ludden, Executive Director, this year’s batch in the Las Huertas…

I am putting in a plug for my farmer friend Lorenzo Candelaria, whose land has been in the family for over 300 years. Every day, he and his crew cultivate, tend and harvest beautiful organic food to eat. It is the food that comes to us gratis from bees, soil, sun and water. He offers…

Seems that bees are in trouble on more than one front. If mites don’t get them, infertility will. This past year I’ve had an alarmingly low rate of healthy mated queens. I’ve made some mis-steps and a few decisions to split a hive a bit prematurely, but either way, the virgin queens I put into…

The sun went all shadowy today. For at least 3 minutes the flames of Too much bright Too much heat Too much “big man” war energy and posturing Eclipsed By the lunar face of the feminine moon and her traverse across the sun. Sun was eclipsed for a moment Missing in action.   Healing dark…

Native Bees number over 4000 in the U.S. alone. Six of the major families of natives live in New Mexico—including bumblebees, bombus terrestris. These native bees, from a few millimeters long to the stout bumblers, are sadly overlooked. They aren’t viewed as the food economy’s workhorses. Instead, honeybees have become the new movie stars, hailed…

The blackberries at Cornelio Candelaria Organico, where I’ve spent the lion’s share of my summer with young farm interns, are succulent and delicious. There are at least 10 somewhat straight rows packed with brambly, curly branches dripping, literally, with midnight sweetness. Of course, I never forget that all this is a provision made possible by…

The only reason I have so much honey this year is because I did my bees a dis-service. They were a mean hive. I admit, I wanted to break them. I was thinking like a human, not a bee. So I took their queen away and made them start from scratch, right at the moment…