Hi all
>   I'd love to read a thread about how the general public regards
>bees and beekeepers.

We are regarded as:
Kooks, bee charmers, granola worshipers, nature freaks, cranky old farts.
We are in dire need of a PR campain or we will not survive.

Why?
Well, from my brief career as a science educator I can tell you that most
school children (k-12) will list bees as the "worst insect"; their
reason is "Because they sting".  I would surmize that most adults would
give the same answer.  After I taught an 8 session class on pollination,
the answers to a Good Bug/Bad Bug quiz change, and students register what
they've been told about the vital link that bee pollination forms in our
food chain.  Bees become Good Insects, only because I told them it was so.
                                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>We all know why  bees have been devastated in
>the last ten years
We know it, but the general public does not, until they are told.

The bottom line here is education/information.  I have learned an incredible
amount from reading this list lately, but the general population does
not suscribe to this list and for lack of information, they don't give
a damn about bees!

Until as beekeepers, we give as much to educating the public as we do
to caring for our bees, things won't change.  I know this is a lot to
ask;  my hands are full managing a few hives and keeping my day job.  I
know we are all busy, but until our public fully appreciates what bees
are and do, we can't really expect them to care.  This is as applicable to
teaching the local Mosquito Control division about bees as it is to
teaching kids not to molest a wild hive they come across.

I challenge anyone who has the time to provide more than a two paragraph
answer to anything on this list to redirect that huge knowledge base out
into the world.  Offer to answer bee questions at your AgExtension office,
write an article for your local paper, talk to the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts
neighborhood associations.  Add a tie on tag to the next jar of honey you
sell that gives info on mites, comment to people at the growers market that
the apples don't look well pollinated, mourn to all your neighbors and
friends that you don't see "wild honey bees" anymore, then ask a teacher if
you could visit their class and talk about bees.
It's up to us!
[end of rant]

Carol




Carol K. Malcolm
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