Poor honey suckers, foulbrood America, no one warned the end of the world? so sit and sip what is sweet--too soon toxic from female floral parts
that flora,
she must have called to you. convincingly of age and wind-whispering just so ripe and ready for foraging, that under-the-skin-buzzing.
and rebuzzing, she sold her sweet roadside. even when some chiseled corporate body, urged chastity. some saviour he was, that a foolish drone with salvation leaving the corners of lips pursed and long-chapped.
he submits: “make your business waggle”
hums- - -“with whatever drone I encounter.”
Colony Collapse Disorder and Pollinator Decline
Statement of
May R. Berenbaum
Professor and Head, Department of Entomology
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
and
Chair, Committee on the Status of Pollinators in North America
Board on Life Sciences and Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources
Division on Earth and Life Studies
National Research Council
The National Academies
before the
Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture
Committee on Agriculture
U.S. House of Representatives
Berenbaum, who hasn’t been sleeping well,
wonders at "The birds and the bees."
Through her muzzle cries, "Bloodsuction!"
charges, "Insecticide!"
promises, "Reverberation!"
Noticing suddenly their no-air-neck-ties, Berenbaum’s audience applauds the apocalypse.
From 2006: reported losses of 30-90% in American beekeeping operations. Environmentalists and beekeepers were first inclined to attribute to known agents of death: parasitic mites. But inconsistent symptoms suggest increased stress, a new and unidentified cause of death. This phenomenon that threatens American eco-systems, food supply and bankroll has been given the name "Colony Collapse Disorder," or CCD.
A lesson in honey being
diet: honey, nectar, pollen or royal jelly (for queen morphology) secreted from the heads of workers
communication: chemicals, odors and so-called 'dances'
social classification: euSocialists:"What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee."
hierarchy: the ruling class (fertile females) the doomed drones (fertile males) and the working soldiers (sterile females, child laborers)
Worker Bees
"we work but not for ourselves"
we are all-singing, all-dancing
born fully-formed and winged
newborn bees patrol and clean, grow quickly into
nurses to new larvae, feeding warm wax or royal jelly
until they can secrete wax from own bellies, chew it soft enough to mold
into a hexagonal cell: rebuild the honeyhome
the honeymakers:
nectar sucked from flowers is passed from older mouths to younger.
drive off unwanted water with flapping wings, cap and seal with beeswax
(perhaps this is none of yours)
myself as honey bee: in the wake
With a start in honey-comb bed sheets
Where I am queen of nothing,
Inhale my fight-or-flight or sip an ethanol sleep
And know it makes no difference. Still,
I do prepare for a wing-slow.
If I avoided chemicals, or could, my head might hang honey-colored,
Though now only a haystack, combed daily by fine and bared teeth.
At the back of my hive-holed brain, there is a soft collapse this morning.
“The mind of the hive thinks this is the end of everything.”
I LOVED THIS.
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