Beyond Honey

BEYOND HONEY

BEYOND HONEY

TIERNEY MONAHAN

New Degree Press

Copyright © 2021 TIERNEY MONAHAN

All rights reserved.

BEYOND HONEY

ISBN

978-1-63730-451-8 Paperback

978-1-63730-559-1 Kindle Ebook

978-1-63730-560-7 Ebook

To Mom and Pop

Introduction

What weighs less than a button yet contributes nearly $20 billion to the crop production industry?

The honey bee.

For many people, honey bees are simply creatures that sting you or are a nuisance when you are enjoying the pool on a hot summer day. They are tiny insects that are insignificant, aggressive, and should be killed if they fly too close. These are common thoughts.

Ancient traditions, however, talk about the meaning of bees as symbols of honesty, unity, community, strength, diligence, and vigilance.

To me, honey bees are teachers and friends—wise creatures that can educate us about ourselves and the world. My bees helped me to find connection with other people and meaning in my small, daily tasks. I have surrendered more peacefully to washing the dishes or analyzing a spreadsheet, and become more open to collaboration with others, even if it is imperfect.

Our world is hurting. The environment is suffering unparalleled damage at the hands of humans. There is a greater than 95 percent probability that the current warming trend of planet Earth is due to human activity since the mid-twentieth century (NASA 2021). Global temperature rise, warming oceans, shrinking glaciers, sea level rise, and extreme weather events are many of the problems we are facing today, and will continue to face in the coming years.

In the West, we have glorified individualism and self-sufficiency. We imagine ourselves as immune to the influence of others while we pursue our destiny. Studies suggest that we are shaped by our social environment, and we suffer greatly when social bonds are threatened or severed (Cook 2013). There is a loneliness epidemic that is rippling across the globe. One in four Americans rarely or never feel as though there are people who understand them, and only 50 percent of Americans have meaningful, in-person social interactions with friends or family each day (Collins 2018).

This is where honey bees can offer their sage example. By using their exemplary model of willing the good of the other more than their own good, bees teach us to be less selfish and more attuned to the needs of those around us. They show us that knowing your role leads to harmony and equilibrium as each bee completes the task for which it has been made. This can empower us to move forward knowing that our daily tasks are not just chores to be done as quickly as possible, but in the ordinariness of what we are called to do lies the road to fulfillment.

Facing the reality of our actions, we must strive to collaborate on solutions to our most pressing challenges. Of course, there are leaders and guides who may shepherd the work. But, most often, they are part of a team or family that supports their efforts.

Honey bees depend on one another for their survival.

No honey bee can go it alone.

As humans, we too, need others not just to survive, but to thrive. We are made for conversation and touch. We need connection. In fact, not only do we need it, but we are designed for it—we are wired to connect.

My dearest friends will tell you that I am always seeking to deepen my connection—connection with myself, connection with others, connection with nature, and connection with God. I see all this seeking and striving as never-ending; a desire that will be with me until the end of my days.

My hope of hopes is that, by the end of this book, you will become a friend to the bees. In the chapters that follow, I will explore the environmental, economic, and entrepreneurial impact of honey bees on our society through research and real-life stories. Pause, take a deep breath, and welcome the wisdom of the bees.

PART ONE

Chapter 1

Bees as Teachers

If you grew up learning about Jane Goodall, you know that animals can transform our lives simply by being themselves.

In the documentary My Octopus Teacher, Craig Foster follows an octopus for one year, visiting her in the ocean every day off the coast of South Africa (Foster 2020). After a difficult day in which a pyjama shark bit off one of the octopus’ legs, Foster realized how much the incident had affected him. He said, I realized I was changing; she was teaching me to become sensitized to the other—especially wild creatures (Foster 2020). Despite thousands of years of studying animals, there is still so much mystery about the inner workings of these creatures. We can observe and study and imagine the why of their actions, but, in the end, there is still a lot that is up for interpretation.

When I was a little girl, I spent hours and hours exploring our backyard and our neighborhood, observing plants and animals.

I was more carefree as a child than I am now as an adult.

I have a photo of myself playing softball in middle school in which I am gazing out on the world, contemplating. I think that is one of the truest parts about me—the contemplative, the meditative, the thoughtful. I have always thought and observed more than I have talked. Yes, I was that child burning with existential curiosity and ruminating about the meaning of life and death.

Now, if I pass by a flower with a bee or an insect on it, I usually stop, even for a few seconds, and admire how gentle they are in their movements. They are so subtle, lightly flying or walking. What would happen if we all took a few seconds to observe nature each day? Would it change us?

I noticed that when I began working with honey bees as an adult, some of those same emotions that I felt as a child returned to me. Almost as if I came home to myself. To my kinder, gentler, slower-moving self.

I am only now seeing my sensitivity as my superpower—not as something to be fixed, but as something to be embraced. I am a deep processor and need time to reflect and think. Nature allows me the time to ponder and muse about life. It also helps me to reacquaint myself with myself—to recognize my inner voice instead of listening to the noise.

Lessons from the Animal Kingdom

Animals can teach us compassion or fierce protection. They can be solitary, or they can thrive in packs. Each animal has its own lesson to teach us.

Humans (Homo sapiens) and honey bees (Apis mellifera) are two very different beings. Honey bees are a creature that can be found in laboratories across the world. Entomologists have studied this tiny creature, and many other bee species, trying to uncover the reason behind certain behaviors. The study of bees, known as melittology, helps us to understand the environment and our interactions within our greater ecosystem. Honey bees are social creatures. The study of honey bees, known as apiology, is an important field of study that allows humans to tackle questions on the evolution of social systems.

The survival of both honey bees and other species of bees is critical to our survival as humans. Native bees, like mason bees and leafcutter bees, as well as bumble bees, are vital for pollination. There are over 20,000 species of bees! The honey bee impacts our lives not only because it pollinates our food, but in working with bees, we can also become more attuned with nature and with ourselves.

In her book, The Truth About Animals, Lucy Cooke explains, When seeking to understand animals, context is key. We have a habit of viewing the animal kingdom through the prism of our own, rather narrow, existence (Cooke 2018). Unraveling the myths surrounding honey bees is one feat. Convincing people to change their minds is another.

In particular, we keep bees for pollination services. They serve our end goal of pollinating the fruits, vegetables, and nuts we eat to survive. Our diet would be remarkably less diverse without them. We would lose almonds, apples, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, kiwi, macadamia nuts, mangos, melons, pumpkins, squash, and many more.

There are striking photos of what the grocery store would look like without bees: the produce section has entire shelves and display cases that are empty. If you type it into your search bar, you can see for yourself what I am talking about—it is quite shocking. We sometimes use these images in educational workshops to build awareness about how important these creatures are to our daily sustenance.

As life becomes more precarious for the honey