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Buzz kill
Preparing my back-porch beehive is my favorite rite of spring, but this year my flock mysteriously went missing. I'll miss more than just the honey.
By Novella Carpenter [2007-03-13]

  • "Bees In The City"--has anyone contacted HBO?

    It reminds me of how, at 32 years of age, I went to the Garfield Park Conservatory in the middle of Chicago to look at the gardens there. Just so happened that they wer having their annual honey harvest. They had stacks of trays full of honey and beeswax.

    Now, I grew up in Chicago. If my neighborhood wasn't the ghetto, you could see it from there. I also saw a lot of bees.

    And never in all of my born days did it occur to me that any of those bees were actually going off to make honey. Ever. Not in the city. Not where I lived.

    I started a long conversation with one of the beekeepers:

    "But where does the honey *come* from?"

    "The bees."

    "But how do they make it?"

    "From the millions of flowers that are in or near the Conservatory. Sir."

    "But it tastes like honey," I said, confused. "I would have thought it would taste like pop can backwash and garbage."

    I think I actually pissed her off. And my date dragged me away.

    But there was something so life-affirming about the whole thing that I talked about it for weeks.

    I hope that damn hive collapse disease stays the hell away from Garfield Park.

    -- chris
    Tuesday, March 13, 2007 07:51 AM
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