We Need Bees -- So do the French

After five years of fine honey, my hive didn't survive the winter.  After five years of heavy lifting, we are trying out some top bar hives this year.  We have been lucky, as our bees stick close to home and we use no pesticides, so they have been safe and happy. Isolated from infected bees, bad chemicals, and cell phones; all thought to be culprits in colony collapse, the bees flourished with little or no help from me.

As every other country on the planet seems to be banning Monsanto's GMO's and their "miracle" herbicide" Roundup, the US is late to the party.  Yesterday my BFF, Beverly, said she could tell there was a "bee" problem.  It seems like a funny commentary, but she has noticed (or more rightly, not noticed) bees, or the lack there of in her yard.  This time of the year in Alabama, there have always been bees doing their bee job of pollinating the flora.  This year, Beverly has seen only a few bees out and about. 

Here is a new dilemma.  Reuters reported this week that beekeepers in France were getting multicolored honey.  When they investigated, they found that a nearby biogas plant has been processing waste from a Mars candy plant producing M&M's.  The residue from bright red, blue, green, yellow and brown shells is being collected by the bees and incorporated into the hive.

While such bejeweled combs might seem lovely, the resulting garish "honey" is unsellable and inedible.  So beekeepers who's hives have survived all manner of assaults are producing honey that is unusable.  Not to mention, there is no way of knowing what it is doing to the bees.

My guess:  You will soon be seeing Mars M&M honey in a supermarché near you.  It will be much cheaper than the fruits and vegetables that have no bees to pollinate them. 

This summer when you see a weed growing in the crack in your sidewalk, reach down and pull it out.  Don't drive to the hardware store and by something to spray on it unless you want apples at $5 each.

Requiescat in Pace - The Doe Run Farm Hive

The causality of our recent stormy weather was our bee hive. At some point during the 50 mile-an-hour wind, the top blew off and the driving rain drownd the hive.

For six years the hive thrived while others faced mites, hive collapse, and disease.


It survived rain, wind, sleet, hail and even snowmageddon. Every year I would think it was gone, and on the first warm day of spring, bees would emerge and begin hunting for pollen.

Every year it provided honey for the farm and friends. It will be missed.

Dora at Doe Run Farm

I am a big fan of Dora Carrington as well as the Omega Workshops. One day I was flipping through a book of Carrington's art and came across a small woodcut illustration she had done at the Omega Workshops. The woodcut was done for David Garnett, whom she later painted.

David Garnett by Dora Carrinton, 1919

The woodcut was for David Garnett's honey.


I later found another version of the woodcut, this one printed in two colors.




We make honey here at Doe Run Farm... actually the bees make the honey and I just watch. I wanted a nice label for our honey and when I saw Carrington's label I knew I wanted it for our honey. So we appropriated the Garnett label as our own.



It is our homage to Carrington and to our bees.