And then I wrote...
by Dick Schilling, Editor Emeritus
... that there is an opportunity during church services to pray for those afflicted with illness, and this past Sunday, after reading a portion of the daily newspaper at breakfast, I was tempted to include honeybees in my list of causes.
Would that be sacrilegious? Success with bees might hold more promise for success than the actual prayer intention that day, which was world peace. Sounds like something a Miss America candidate might pick. With a significant portion of the world’s people praying to a God different than the Christian God, and in fact intent on killing non-believers, and another significant portion believing in no god, the odds are not good. Might as well pray for World Be Free, a professional athlete who may or may not be in need of help.
But I digress.
“Everybody knows” how important bees are as pollinators of plants and trees that produce food for humans. Their numbers are shrinking. The experts are divided in what is the cause, and there well may be more than one cause. Presence of a disease carrying mite is known. Some folks blame spraying of farm fields with insecticides. Some say even herbicides may share in blame because they kill some plants from which bees might otherwise collect pollen for their work. The lack of flowering plants and “weeds” due to expanded acres for farming purposes also is cited as reducing food supply for bees.
I have been leaving some “obnoxious” weeds grow to maturity because they attract bees in great numbers. I don’t know how good that honey is. My dad knew some farmers west of town who produced honey and sold some of it in those square combs, clover hay honey early and then basswood honey later. He layered comb honey and peanut butter between two slices of homemade bread for breakfast. I can only imagine what diet conscious folks would make of that combination. I did not care much for comb honey, but where it sort of leaked out around the edges it would leave largely the wax cells, which I would chew like gum.
Does anyone still use the expression “none of your bee’s wax” when asked a question they don’t want to answer?
Maybe 10 years ago, I confess, I killed nearly 500 bees who invaded my bedroom. I had to keep that door closed and sleep in another bedroom several nights, and quite a few of them found their way downstairs to pester me. I don’t know if they were honeybees or not. I hope not. If so, mea culpa.
Some suggest a few hives for several city residents might allay possible chemical damage and keep hive-to-hive spread common to larger operations from happening. Pet bees might make more sense than pet dogs, cats or birds.
Whatever, in your unspoken but sincere affection for afflicted bees, a little prayer on a Sunday couldn’t hurt!
