Pollinators
June is National Pollinators Month. Butterflies, beetles, hummingbirds, bats, and most importantly, bees are among the 200,000 pollinators who are responsible for transferring pollen from one plant to another. In doing so, they provide an essential service to plants, and ultimately to us all, in the production of flowers, nuts,
Collective Safety
An afternoon with my honeybees got me thinking about what these buzzing yellow and black beauties can teach us about our health, and particularly our mental health, at this moment in our journey with COVID-19. The apis mellifera, or western honeybee, can only survive as part of a high functioning
Wisdom from the Hives
I can’t wait to see my honeybees. They have been clustered in their hives through the winter. With the arrival of some sunny March days, they are beginning to take flight from their winter huddle to scope out the world anew. This transition from winter to spring makes the dwindling
Canine Companions and Mental Health
Canis lupus familiaris. Man’s best friend. We all know that is Fido (or for me, Nike). No other interspecies relationship compares to the one that exists between humans and dogs. And this week at the Gerontological Society Association (GSA) Meeting in Austin, I discovered that dogs are teaching us about
Stewardship, the G20 & Honey Bees
Stewardship is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the activity or job of protecting and being responsible for something.” With more than 20 heads of state and government in Hamburg for the G20 Summit, the world is depending on these political leaders to act as stewards for the public good. Resilience, sustainability
Nike.
Part Belgian Malinois, part Rhodesian Ridgeback, all Rescue. Nike came to us cowering, quivering, and showing behaviors of an abused and abandoned pup. Now more than two years later, she is a loyal spirit who in a nanosecond can go from twitching her hind leg as she chases squirrels in
Bees!
The Appius melliferous, commonly known as the honeybee, has been disappearing in recent years. Reports of colony collapse disorder have set off alarms around the globe, prompting a movement in backyard beekeeping. After years of watching and wishing, I became a beekeeper this spring with the arrival of two hives
