Throwing day
Now it's time for tossing and filling the honey jars with this year's harvest. Fun to see the result of this year's collaboration with the neighbor (with whom we share the bees). The harvest was clearly worse than last year but a little better than we dared hope; maybe 60-70 % of last year's harvest. I find that beekeeping raises questions about honey production in 9 cases out of 10 when you start talking about it with the environment.
Honey is for me a fun and good by-product; it is mainly about ensuring effective pollination of apple trees and lots of other trees, plants and flowers. It seems like we take this for granted, but I feel worried as I know how fragile a bee community is. For example, a neighbor lost 30 communities this year due to mites.
This summer I sat under the neighbor's linden tree that just vibrated by the sound of thousands of bees - I was so happy with the activity and the contribution, but at the same time I am so worried about the trend of bee deaths around the world. How do you handle it?