Experiencing Beekeeping Across The World

Beth Kerschner and Yves Zehnder wearing bee suits after checking on a hive at Sacred Sueños Farm in Vilcabamba, Ecuador

I have always known honeybees to be gentle creatures. Working at Honey Gardens during high school I was around them often and never had a bad experience. Even when a bee stung me, I knew that she was sacrificing her life to give me her healing medicine. Last semester, Fall 2008, I studied in Ecuador for three months with Round River Conservation Studies. I had the opportunity to learn a little about how beekeeping is done in Ecuador during my time there.

Part of the time, our group stayed in a house just outside the city of Cuenca. Our neighbor, Anna Lucia, had a hive of honeybees in the backyard. We were fortunate enough to be able to eat the honey from her bees, straight from the hive! It tasted distinctly different from raw honey here. I can’t explain how it tasted, but I would attribute the difference to the fact that the bees simply are feeding on different plants in Ecuador from the ones our bees here feed on. When I needed time alone or wanted an excuse to take a breather outside I would go sit near the hive and watch the bees, breathing their vibrant energy in and out. I wanted to ask Anna Lucia more about her small-scale operation, but she hardly spoke any English and my Spanish skills are less than perfect. Without words, we connected on the simple acknowledgement of our mutual love for bees.

Anna Lucia's bee hive in Cuenca, Ecuador

After I finished the Round River program, I spent a week volunteering on a small organic farm called Sacred Sueños. One night over a dinner of veggie stew and fresh fruit salad, Yves Zehnder, the founder of the farm (and native English speaker), mentioned that he kept bees. I immediately began telling him about my history with bees and how much I loved them. We talked about our experiences and I asked question after question about beekeeping in the rural Ecuadorian Andes. He told me that the bees he was keeping were African bees, rather than the European species we have here in the US. He explained how African bees are much more aggressive than European bees and people have to be much more cautious around them.

I learned that African bees will take over other beehives by learning the “secret dance” of the other hive and sending one of their own into the new hive with a queen-to-be larva and killing the resident queen. The worker from the African beehive puts the larva in with the other larva of the new hive and before long the population has an African queen and becomes infiltrated with African bees and is ultimately taken over. African bees produce less honey than European bees and are generally more difficult to keep because of their aggressive nature. While at Sacred Sueños, Yves and I put on the bee suits and checked one of the hives. I was the designated smoker. One bee got into Yves’ mask and stung him on the lip, but none got through my suit! Yves has bees for two main reasons: to produce wax for candles and honey for human consumption on the farm and to help pollinate the many fruits and veggies he grows.

If not for my love for bees that begun at Honey Gardens, I would not have had these experiences that deepened my overall experience studying in Ecuador. Spending time with bees was a fun and educational aspect of my experience that I’ll never forget.

Beth Kershner http://www.sacredsuenos.com/who.html

The benefits of Nature for children with ADD / ADHD

File this one under the "let's spend grant money to research the obvious" category: it seems that walking for about 20 minutes in a park, surrounded by trees and Nature, is as effective as Ritalin for managing some of the symptoms commonly classified under the "attention deficit" umbrella.

Researchers recruited 15 boys and 2 girls and walked them for 20 minutes in one of three settings, on different days: an urban park, a residential neighborhood, and a downtown area. Those who walked in the park showed significant, powerful improvements in their ability to concentrate and perform after their walk. The others did not. While these results may seem obvious to us, we can at least gain some measure of comfort in knowing that the mainstream medical community feels like "doses of nature might serve as a safe, inexpensive, widely accessible new tool in the tool kit for managing ADHD symptoms" as Dr. Andrea Taylor, head researcher for the study, wisely commented.
Now, I might feel that a walk in the Vermont woods, as they turn from green to fiery red, might give an even better experience to nurture biophilia, provide renewal and inspiration, and calm a scattered mind. But even a manicured park can do the trick! So finding time to spend outside, away from television, houses, and buildings, is a good idea for our kids. And "nature deficit disorder" might soon be recognized as a legitimate concern. Imagine that...

from the blog of Guido Masé RH(AHG), clinical herbalist, herbal educator, and garden steward specializing in holistic Western herbalism From his organic farm in Montpelier, Vermont, herbal extracts, massage oils and healing salves are offered www.grianherbs.com

Thank you for your support of the bees, plant medicine, and those that work in agriculture.

Propolis' antimicrobial activity: what’s new? "Propolis is a hive product that bees manufacture from balsamic resins actively secreted by plants on leaf buds and barks. It is widely acknowledged to exert antimicrobial activity against a wide range of microorganisms (bacteria, fungi and viruses), but also exerts anti-inflammatory, anaesthetic, healing, vasoprotective, antioxidant, antitumoral, antiulcer, and hepatoprotective activities. This paper (in Italian) reviews the antimicrobial properties of propolis, focusing on respiratory pathogens. These characteristics make propolis a valid option for therapy of upper respiratory tract infections." by De Vecchi E, Drago L, Laboratorio Microbiologia, Universita di Milano, Italy

The TV special on raw honey with Meriwether Hardie, Honey Gardens has been re-scheduled to Saturday April 11 @ 6:30 PM, on the Food Network cable & satellite. Please check your local listing to confirm exact time and date.

beverage makin’ joy ~ recipes for honey based natural sodas & honey wine/mead

More than a truce

Ellwire bee yard, St. Lawrence County, northern New York State - May 11, 2001

The snakes are everywhere today.

Big fat snakes with little ones by their sides. Pairs of smaller snakes under most of the bee hives. I am finally getting used to them.

Ellwire is consistently one of our best bee yards, and I love to come to this sacred place. Many of the colonies have already made 30 pounds of honey. This is a classic upstate bee yard where the plants have grown through successive generations and molded around the hives for over 50 years. The bees overwinter well here. The snakes come with the land.

On many of the days that I work here, I see over 40 snakes. We are used to each other now. They lie in the sun, and I work around them. They stick their tongues out at me and bob their heads. When I picked up the wood they are lying on and nudge them along, they hiss at me and slither away.

I used to jump and scream every time I saw a snake here; I was scared of them. Then four years ago, we made an agreement. I would not hurt them, and they do not bite me. It is a universal contract that extends beyond this land. This understanding also covers times when I am with other people and someone wants to kill a snake. I protect my friends.

Mice destroy a lot of bee equipment each year; they make their homes in boxes that are in storage in the bee yards, eating the comb and the wood. I used to get mad at the mice, they were the last creatures I ever harmed. Now I leave them alone, moving them along into grass when I find them. Snakes will take care of all of this as they eat the mice. Without the snakes, the damage would be unimaginable.

The bees are letting me know that it is time to stop working with them. They are barometers of the weather, coming home before it rains and indicating that they do not want their homes taken apart any more. They stick their abdomens in the air and fan alarm pheromones my way. At 6:12 PM the first rain drops start to fall, and with the soft rain continuing for the next day, the drought is over. We will now get a honey crop at Ellwire.

The snakes at Ellwire are protected from the rain, coiled under most every bee hive. We have come to a peace on this land. It is truly more than a truce.

Hawthorn for a failing heart

Hawthorn (various Crategus species) received an endorsement in another Ernst-and-friends metareview. The review included 14 trials, and focused on hawthorn's ability to improve the maximum workload of the heart, and improve various cardiovascular markers during exercise-induced strain. The bottom line: hawthorn leaf and flower extract helps. A lot. Even if added to existing medication regimens.

Just to be clear, no new clinical research is coming out of this review. Rather, it attempts to collate existing studies and compare them using a common denominator. Further details on the data are below, but for now my opinion continues to be that hawthorn, either as a berry, a tasty jam, or as a leaf-and-flower extract (or tea), should always be considered as part of the protocol for cardiovascular weakness or imbalance. In fact, I might go further to say that most colorful berries would accomplish similar effects and that, in fact, a nice cocktail of all sorts of berry fruits is probably the best way to go for managing blood pressure, improving capillary integrity, and increasing the efficiency of the heart muscle. Eat well!

from the Blog of Guido Masé Clinical herbalist, herbal educator, garden steward, Montpelier, Vermont

Guido co-founded the Vermont Center for Intensive Herbalism, Montpelier, Vermont, which sponsors a Clinical Herbalist training program and the Family Herbalist training year.

Thank you for all of your support of the bees, plant medicine, and those that work in agriculture.

"In August, the bees are working on the clover family plants and goldenrod. We are starting to see the first of the aster flowers. The vegetables on the farm that need to be pollinated have already been visited by the bees. At this time, it is important to think about whether the bees will have enough food to get through the winter. It has been a cool, wet summer, and I suspect that the bees have not made as much food here as in previous seasons."

Honey Gardens & raw honey on a national TV special - We are very excited to announce that the Food Network channel on cable and satellite is doing a documentary series entitled “My Life In Food”. One segment of the series is called Milk & Honey, and will be featuring Meriwether Hardie and Honey Gardens. The show is scheduled to be aired, Saturday, February 14 at 6:30 p.m. Please check your local listings for exact time and date.

Bee Learning Behavior Affected by Eating Toxin from GE Corn from the Organic Consumers Association
Jan. 7, 2009.

“One of the speculated contributors to this decline is transgenic crops and specifically those containing Bt proteins since these are insect-active toxins to which bees are exposed through various routes. In particular, bee larvae are exposed since they consume large quantities of pollen which they sometimes source from maize plants (Sabugosa-Madeira et al. 2007).” Pub. by the Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education, Dec. 2008.

Honey Laundering: A sticky trail of intrigue and crime, from the Seattle (WA) Post-Intelligence
Dec. 30, 2008.

This story exposes how adulterated honey comes into the US, often from China, Vietnam, and other countries. Because of all of the antibiotics in Chinese honey, the importation of it has been restricted into the US. This article details how foreign honey from a restricted country will be brought to another country that is approved for importing to the US, have the paperwork altered, and then brought to the US.

You are joyfully invited to attend the 9th International Herb Symposium, Celebrating the Healing Power of Plants, June 19 -21, 2009 @ beautiful Wheaton College, Norton, Mass., with an extraordinary selection of Speakers from twelve countries, over 90 Workshops for all levels of interest and experience, and Herbal Intensives for in depth study, panel discussions & case studies. I will be sharing Jan Cannon’s film “Health & the Hive” and facilitating a workshop on marketing of plant medicine. We thank Rosemary Gladstar for organizing this special gathering. www.internationalherbsymposium.com

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Honey Bee Economics

The humble honey bee. This singing whir of golden hue embodies unselfishness and unconditional love. Small and unassuming, this insect offers us numerous opportunities to learn from the collective intelligence of its society. By examining the honey bee's example, we find clues to how we might approach the work of bringing forth a new and sustainable society, and thus a new world.

Let's look at the hive's economy. Like humans, honey bees utilize natural resources to help fuel the economic engine of their society. Nectar, pollen, propolis, and water are “harvested” and “mined” from the earth to provide the raw materials for food production, housing construction, health care and maintaining a hospitable atmosphere within the honey bee city-state so all its citizens can live comfortably. In acquiring these resources, the bees do little harm to the natural world. Unless they are threatened and are forced to defend themselves, they do not hurt so much as a leaf during their foraging trips. In fact, due to their role as pollinators, the honey bees actually leave the environment in better shape than they find it, as they take what they need to survive. The bees’ example proves that it is possible to take what one needs from the world in a manner that helps the environment, or at least reduces damage.

Another profound lesson of honey bee economics comes in the form of the power of their community. All activity within the hive is directed at furthering the interests of the entire colony. With no thought of the “self”, the bee's constant focus of effort is on the local scene and the good of the whole community. Workers step in and do whatever needs to be done within the hive, working constantly without complaint. They feed each other, build places to live for one another, cool each other when hot, and snuggle to provide warmth when cold. When one job is done, they move along to another, always contributing to the betterment of their collective sisterhood. They work cooperatively as a team, like a single organism, following their inner guidance, and doing what is right without the use of force or threats from a leader.



The bees’ cooperative community stands in stark contrast to western society. We are all encouraged to “go it alone” and provide our own source of income in order to procure a home, transportation, food, clothing, etc. And yet, the idea of the American nation being built on rugged individualism is a myth. Most of the truly momentous advances in the United States came about only when folks rallied together for a common cause, from the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the election of an African American president. One way we can overcome our current difficulties will be to rediscover the power of working together in community, and, like the bees, learn to rely upon each other once again. We can get through these tough times if we will only help each other out. By showing our love and providing for or sharing with each other, we provide for ourselves. When our community is doing well, we tend to do well, and when our community suffers, we don't do as well.

While conventional wisdom says we should work at a single career our entire working life in order to reach a level of skill and professionalism that will allow us to maximize our earnings, each one of us has many talents. Like the bees, we could build a society that supports us in taking on different roles and jobs as our life path evolves, or the needs of our communities change. These are the kinds of alternatives that we can learn from the humble honey bee – alternatives that have true freedom, health, prosperity, and peace as their core.

There is much we can learn about the enduring power of harmonious community that is manifested in the forty-million-year-old society known as the honey bee hive. Since they survived the last era in which large scale extinctions of species were the norm on earth, and since they are still around today, honey bees can provide us with useful clues to improve our society.

The hardest of times are not necessarily the worst of times if you will keep to love, empathy, and imaginative living. The challenges ahead have little to do with Wall Street, and everything to do with changing the way we live, and the way we relate to each other, the earth, and ultimately, ourselves. For those willing to listen, the wisdom of the honey bee can help to guide our way through these dark times.

As the the Elders of the Oraibi Arizona Hopi Nation remind us, “We are the ones we've been waiting for”.

Going to the Farmer’s Market

After many sunny Saturdays (and a few very chilly ones) in Burlington City Hall Park, the 2008 summer Farmers’ Market has come to an end. The Halloween costumes came out for the last one; there were little lions and tigers and bears galore. We were even fortunate enough to meet a family of bee keepers out trick-or-treating. The dogs we had enjoyed so much every week came back to see us one last time and some owners stocked up on jars of two pound honey for their dogs for the winter.

Meriwether Hardie & Charlotte Hardie at
the Burlington Farmers Market, August 2008

I had never thought to try to feed dogs honey until one couple approached my sister and me to ask to take a honey sample for their large brown Komondor, a pup that greatly resembles a mop. They told us that one day each week they fast their dog, feeding him only our raw honey to cleanse his body. It was wonderful to share a gift, a food and a medicine, that a pup and his owner could benefit from and enjoy together.

Families who came to the market together could not pass our stand without stopping for their children to sample the honey, rarely parting without a jar of honey and bottle of elderberry or wild cherry bark syrup. The families took pleasure in sharing stories of when Honey Gardens’ products helped their family, all the way from their teething children to their sickly college students. Many concerned parents bought our cold and flu remedies to ship to their college students who had traveled out of Vermont to achieve higher education.

Tacia Eriksen, Harley Eriksen and
Vermont Governor Jim Douglas enjoy
Honey Gardens raw honey at the first
ever Burlington Winter Market, November 2008

When a longtime customer would pass our stand and hear my sister or I explaining Honey Gardens’ products to new potential customers, they would stop and explain with us, and most would tell how they swear by our products and keep a jar of Apitherapy raw honey in their home at all times, and our cold and flu products in their medicine cabinet. As these magnificent souls gathered to share their thoughts on our products, folks would see a crowd forming around our stand and swarm in to learn of the wonders of elderberry, propolis and raw honey.

There were new college students who had never heard of Honey Gardens’ at the beginning of the Summer Market, and by the end they were regulars, coming every Saturday to purchase more honey or syrup and to share our gift with their friends. The college seniors especially seemed to enjoy our Mead, and loved presenting us with their identification cards to prove that they were finally 21 and able to sample legally.

Most customers knew about raw honey already, and a good portion knew of the wonders that are our syrups and healing salve, however, our Mead was something new to share with people. Not many knew what Mead was and all were excited to hear the story of it and wondered if it was sweet like honey. Once people learned about Mead, they were eager to try it and, more often than not, buy it. Whether they were purchasing it for themselves, as a gift for a loved one, or in its traditional use as a wedding gift, one and all were happy with it.

Sharing our products with the people of Burlington has been wonderful. We have just returned from the first Winter Market in Memorial Auditorium (the next ones will be Dec. 20th, Jan. 17th, Feb. 21st, March 21st,, and April 18th). Natural cold and flu season remedies, all made using raw honey, is the best gift one could give or receive; remember that this holiday season!

harvest and the abundance of the land

Across the land, beekeepers are now bringing their honey to the honey house for extracting. One of the miracles of working on the land and with the bees took place again this year. A lot of honey came in the last few days. We saw it in our own bees: right into last week, the crop was light. The bees had months of rain this season, day after day of precipitation where they stayed in their homes and did not fly to flowers.

honey bee with pollen, on sunflower.

Ann D. Watson Aug. 29, 2008

Then came the goldenrod and aster flowers, the last major and minor nectar plants of the season in the northeast. Many beekeepers commented about how they had looked at the hives before this, and they were “light”. But after the goldenrod and aster bloomed, the next time they were with their bees, there was a good crop.

This has happened with our bees many times over the last 30 years, which has helped me have more patience and trust in the whole process of the rhythms of the land. At the "eleventh hour" you can't do much about the strength or health of your bees anyway, and we see how in letting go and accepting, we are often given great abundance.

Sunflowers heads are composite flowers. The head looks like one flower, but like the dandelion, the sunflower is actually composed of numerous small florets. A sunflower head like this is composed of 1,000 to 4,000 florets. Each floret contains both male and female parts of the flower and is open for 2 days to be pollinated. Honey bees collect both pollen and nectar from sunflowers.

Florets open from the outer edge of the flower head inwards, so one can see gradual progression as pollination occurs. It takes 5 - 10 days for this process to be completed.

source: Crop Pollination by Bees by Keith S. Delapland and Daniel F. Meyer. Published by CABI Publishing, 2000.


Lewis Hill with a tray of one month elderberry plants
Greensboro, Vermont, June 2003

Lewis Hill, a gentle giant, teacher & friend, a man of the plants, 1924 - 2008

I met Lewis when I was fresh out of agricultural school; I was the state bee inspector and checked in with him each year to see how his bees were going. I was drawn to this giant of a man, who was among the most gentle and kind of people I had ever met. He was evidence that people are put in our paths to dramatically change and improve our lives.

For years as we walked around the gardens where he and Nancy lived, as well as his father and grandfather before him, he pointed out the medicinal plants as elecampagne, the many varieties of lilies, berries, apples, and vegetables that he and Nancy grew. Lewis delighted in introducing me to the elderberries and black currants, and would share the medicinal value of each. After the walks, there was often a cocktail of elderberry and orange juice.

"Todd, why don't you consider working with elderberry", he would ask me each year, as we walked among the towering plants. I listened, but was so focused on the bees that I did not digest what he was saying. Lewis gave me plants to take home, always looking for and finding a small one that could be transplanted and moved in any month of the year. After 14 years of his mantra, I started to see elderberry products in health food stores, which came from Europe and were mixed with glucose, fillers, and artificial ingredients. It was easy to see that we could produce something of a higher quality here in Vermont, and make it with raw honey. I went back to Lewis and said that I now understood what he was saying, and asked for more information. He smiled and simply said that he had been waiting for me to hear and listen. Then he took me to his library and he shared files from articles, written over the years, on the elderberry's medicinal value and propagation.

We then started the Vermont Elderberry Project. For years Lewis would fill his greenhouse with softwood elderberry cuttings. I would pick them up in the summer after they had rooted, and shared them with thousands in our community and beyond. Lewis connected us to another era, where outside the Vermont farmhouse, people would grow elderberry and have bees and chickens.

Elderberry is older than Vermont; it has the anti-viral agent that chemical medicines do not have for getting rid of the virus in the common cold. It supports the immune system and is helpful when one has the flu.

If it were not for Lewis sharing the elderberry, we would not be keeping bees and sharing Apitherapy honey around this land. The elderberry gave our apiary an opportunity to diversify and share the value of honey as a medicine in plant medicine.

While Lewis was a man of great strength, he always showed me great kindness and tenderness. He was not shy about showing his affections, being one of the first in my work to sign each letter "love, Lewis". As soon as I "got it" about the elderberry, he started taking me to the black currant plants and putting these in my car to take home and think about. I understood it earlier this time, and we are now making black currant honey wine, and looking at a new plant medicine with black currant.

At the honey house of Honey Gardens, we are the caretakers for two elderberry cultivars of Lewis Hill, Berry Hill and Coomer; he always said that they produce larger berries and are more winter hardy. From this plantation, we make hardwood and softwood cuttings, and share these each year. 'Plant 6 - 20 feet apart, have at least one of each cultivar for greater pollination and fruit yield, and protect your plants from the deer."

Thank you, Lewis. We see the fruit of your life all around us.

Excerpt from a beekeeper’s journal, the wheel of the bee season

Beekeeping has taken my connection to the land to a much deeper level. At this, the end of my second full season as a backyard beekeeper, I pause to appreciate the gift the bees have brought me: the gift of connection to the great wheel of life.

Over the course of the spring and summer, I am in tune with the flowers. Willow, black raspberry, apple, dandelion, black locust. Catmint, chives, wild geranium, black cohosh, echinacea. Native plants abound: sumac, white clover, alfalfa, the sweet clovers. Each day, I note what plants the bees are visiting. I read, observe, and try to find out where they are getting the bulk of their nectar and pollen. I watch excitedly as the flowers gently fold and the pollinated plants begin to set fruit.

Honeybee among the last flowers of the
season, broccoli . photo by Ann D. Watson

Fruit season begins: black raspberries behind the kitchen, which a month ago the bees were pollinating, are fat and juicy on the canes. Then come blackberries. The early sun and rain combined with excellent pollination have made a bumper crop. I think of how the pollinators worked the flowers which have turned into the plump, flavorful delights I now pop into my mouth. I spend hours in the patch and return with brimming baskets, my arms scratched and clothes stained purple. Two quarts make a blackberry cobbler to die for. Ten quarts go into the freezer.

Late summer has arrived. The goldenrod is beginning to bloom. Now all is dependent on weather. I check weekly to see if another honey super is needed. If it's cloudy, I'm making my plans for taking off and extracting the honey. Goldenrod is in full bloom, a great yellow swath of color dotted with spots of mauve Joe-Pye Weed and white boneset.

The end of August comes and it's time to take the honey off. I have few enough supers that I can afford the time to use an old fashioned, unheated knife to gently slice off the cappings in an unhurried manner. As I work, I meditate on the great wheel of the seasons that turns every day imperceptibly, gradually leading us toward the end of the summer and the long winter after that.

Aster flowers open. The warm sunny days are fewer now, and farther between. Aside from the sedum and borage still adorning my garden, this is the last major food for the bees, the last chance to store up summer's bounty in the form of honey, to feed the colony through a long cold period without fresh food. I feel a sadness come over me, knowing that as each day comes and goes, there are fewer times when it will be warm enough for the bees to fly free in the fresh air and gather fresh nectar. They are driving the drones, now-useless consumers of precious food, out of the hive, cutting their losses, battening down the hatches. Now I can only trust that my vigilance all summer and the bounty of the land, have made the bees strong and numerous enough to keep each other warm on the coldest days and to move to their honey stores as they need to. I am grateful for the millions of flowers they have visited and their strength in fanning their wings to evaporate the water out of the honey; for their ability to make wax to cap their stores; and for the trust that once more, enough bees will survive the winter to keep their species going another season. Most of all, I am grateful for the deeper connection to the land which the bees have brought me.

the cross pollination of life

bumblebee approaching bleeding heart

photo Ann D. Watson 2007, author of the Honey Gardens blog
on nectar and pollen plants and
pollinators of the Champlain Valley, Vermont

In the early days of Spring, we visited the bees as the last patches of snow lingered throughout the land. Choruses of frogs sang for weeks, as waves of red maples were lighting up the hills, signaling the end of maple sugaring and also the beginning of the flight of honey bees as they gather nectar and pollen from the same trees that syrup was made from. The colonies of bees that have mite resistant queens and where organic practices are followed continue to come out of the winter stronger.

In the season of abundant dandelion flowers for the bees, we have been splitting the surviving colonies, which makes up for the winter loss. We are encouraging them to raise their own queens this year and support their health with organic mite procedures. Last week, the colonies of honey bees were moved out of the apple orchards.

Another sign of Spring is the lone queen bumble bee flying from flower to flower, gathering nectar and pollen to feed and start their new families. The bumble bees often have more muscles and are larger than honey bees, and can thus fly in the cooler temperatures of Spring. They are native pollinators and social like honey bees; the bumble bees are also a critical piece of our ecosystem and like honey bees, they are at risk. You can find out more, including how to help them, at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust

http://www.bumblebeeconservationtrust.co.uk/

Wainsworth Brown, David Buchanan, Noel Henry, and Neville Buchanan, Zolfo Spring, Florida, April 2008. The boxes of orange blossom honey have been brought to the honey house for extracting. The bees were just starting to work on the palmetto palm flowers. These men work with the bees in South Florida, and maintain strong ties to their community in Jamaica.

Nearby in Zolfo Spring, the honey bees were working the flowers in a 180 acre field of watermelon. When these watermelon are pollinated by honey bees, the yield of the fruit is between 80,000 - 90,000 pounds/acres. Without the bees, the farmer only gets 10,000 - 15,000 pounds of melons/acre.