We are officially beekeepers! Our friend Claire procured 3 pounds of highly adaptable Italian honey bees (Apis mellifera ligustica) for us and we picked them up this weekend. They are now ensconced on our rooftop (out of the reach of bears!) in the hive that was my Christmas present to G. He did much of the research for this project and I am now doing my reading to catch up. Bees are a big responsibility and I want to make sure we give them all the TLC they need. After all, with any luck, next year they'll be giving us some delicious honey.

Another incentive for starting a hive is the desire to support the severely challenged bee population. I'm sure you've heard of the frightening widespread colony collapse. (This is a great piece on the latest conclusions.) I find it fascinating that Rudolph Steiner, the German founder of biodynamic agriculture and a precursor of the modern organic movement, predicted in 1923 that artificial industrial techniques used to breed honey bees would lead to the species' collapse within a hundred years. The bee is yet another tragic victim of monoculture industrial agriculture and its rampant use of pesticides and GMOs.

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