WiserEarth Editors

A Call to Action

Urgent Call to Combat the Decline of the Honey Bee

Become a Bee Guardian in Your Community

                                                           Hobby Beekeeping is Fun, Simple, and Important!!!

• It is estimated that in the US alone, more than 24 BILLION bees have disappeared since Spring 2006.

• Commercial crop production has been effected in a reported 35 States.  This is a highly significant, poorly understood problem that threatens not only US and global food supplies, but left unchecked, may soon prove to have devastating consequences for the delicate balance of the Biosphere itself.

• Beekeeping has become increasingly commercialized, consolidated, and commoditized.  Over the last two decades, the number of beekeepers has been cut in half.

• Akin to the situation with large companies and their commercial seed programs, there is little doubt that industrial harvesting and "production" of the honeybee is destroying genetic diversity, and is contributing to the viral nature and spread of CCD.

• As such, becoming a Bee Guardian in your community may prove critical to ensuring natural/organic pollination of plants and vegetables in your local area, while ensuring a safe habitat for the wide proliferation of genetic diversity among the honeybee population, and thus helping sustain the critical and delicate balance of our planet’s ecosystem, food chain, and Biosphere.

• With recent technological developments in hive design, almost anyone can become a backyard hobby
  beekeeper! 
  
  

  We are not just an idea, we are alive and in motion.

   

  We have demonstrated over the past three years that with a simpler and more natural hive design and with good instructive material that almost anyone can successfully care for bees. This has been true over a wide age range; From Elizabeth 14, who convinced her parents to let her have two hives to Ellen, age 70, who wanted to help the bees.

   

  We have introduced alternative hives and Bee Guardian methods in 3 countries including 16 states in the US, all through volunteer efforts. The response from the new Bee Guardians has been tremendously positive and successful.

   

  We have focused our efforts in Boulder County and several counties in California to demonstrate the acceptance of Bee Guardian networks. The Bee Guardianship has been very well accepted and we can now show how these hives have contributed to local pollination.

   

  We were also interested in the overall success of the new Bee Guardians honey bee colonies, under “beginner care”. Again we can report that when many commercial hives are affected by infestations and collapse the Bee Guardians hives have been thriving.
  
  In Boulder County our momentum has inspired new Bee Guardians. We have successfully trained Bee Guardians and set up 60 hives, 75 percent of the bees placed in the hives were captured swarms, which create the potential for genetic diversity. This grass roots movement has organically grown by word of mouth. Most of the hives were installed in 2007 where each hive houses approximately 40,000-50,000 bees, totaling a million and half new bees helping to pollinate the Boulder County. This model is expandable and can be duplicated across the US and other counties.
  
  

  Our free downloadable construction plans for the “Backyard Hive” from our website has received over 2500 downloads across the US, Europe and many other countries.                                  http://www.backyardhive.com