Environmental filmmaker Jan Cannon has spent many days of the last two years with the crew of Honey Gardens, in the field with the bees, moving through the seasons with the bees, filming as we were making plant medicine, talking with and gathering footage of our team of queen breeders, bee venom therapist, vegetable and dairy farmers. His film is all about the teamwork that makes this work possible, and it documents the changes in our work at Honey Gardens.

We are grateful to Jan for his heartfelt film on the bees and Honey Gardens.
www.jancannonfilms.com

Health & the Hive: A Beekeeper’s Journey explores the importance of honeybees in our lives and the many health benefits that come from the beehive. The film considers the current state of the bees and suggests approaches to beekeeping and agriculture that would improve the outlook for bees and the humans who rely on them. Some of the topics addressed in the film are pollination, queen breeding, disease control, bee venom therapy, organic agriculture and honey based plant medicine. This film is 53 minutes and is available here

The name of the Mapuche community was first given to me by Facundo, the gaucho with whom I had just spent a month and half riding across Argentina with, over 800 miles in 40 days. I wrote to the community leader, the shaman, to ask if I could come spend a week or so with his people. He wrote back that although he was happy to hear that I had spent time with other Mapuche communities, he was not interested in having a white girl from the US come disrupt the daily on-goings of his people. And I thought that was the end of our correspondence. A couple of days went by and I received another message from the shaman. This time he wrote that he had a dream about a white outsider, a girl, coming to his people, bringing something important. He wrote to ask me if I was this white girl, and to ask what I thought I was bringing. At this point in my journey through South America, I had seen many white people traveling, thinking that they were spreading something precious, bringing foreign, educated thought to rural, poor communities. I wrote back, telling him that I was not here to be oppressive or to educate other people. I was here to learn, to observe, to make connections, and to educate myself. I told him that I was interested in agriculture, in farming, in creating wholesome connections, and fruitful relationships. I told him that I had grown up beekeeping with my dad. Instead of sending me a message in reply, he sent me three horses. One horse to carry Juan who would lead me through the mountains back to their community, one horse for me to ride, and one horse for the box of bees that I was asked to bring and share with their community.

At first they were silent. I worked next to them in the fields. I sat with them at their fires. I ate with them. I slept on horse blankets in between their bodies. And each day at four, after everyone was done working in the fields, they would gather around me and I would try and teach them about bees. They didn’t speak English, and I didn’t speak their native tongue, but somewhere, using Spanish as a middle ground and many hand gestures, we found a compromise. And then one day a child invited me to play a ball game with a group of her friends. And somehow, as soon as this one girl overcame her skepticism and opened up her world to me, so did the rest of the community. Suddenly I realized that many more of them could speak Spanish then they had first let on. Suddenly they were extremely curious about where I had come from, and what my world was made up of. Suddenly I could ask them all the questions that had been building in my mind about their farming techniques, culture, and history.
After about a week and a half I had to continue on with my journey. It was an overwhelming goodbye. Everyone in the community wanted to give me something. A piece of ribbon, a fork, a dried flower, a rock…anything to remember them by. It was hard for me to accept anything from them- they came from a world with so little, and I came from so much, yet to refuse would have been an insult. Looking back, I wish that I had brought something more than a boxful of bees. I said this to the shaman. He looked at me slowly and replied that I had given them so much more. He told me that I was the first outsider to ever come spend time with them, and that I had opened up their eyes to other ideas and thoughts. I tried to tell him how much they had given me in knowledge. I tried to show him how much I had learned about new farming ideas, permaculture designs, sword fighting, killing and gutting a sheep and then being able to use or compost every piece of that animal, and many other things. But he merely brushed aside my words with a smile, and slapped the rump of my horse to send me on my way.
As I continue to travel the world, I have come to realize the power of the land. The land is a common language that many understand. It is the form of communication that many times I have fallen back on when words seem to not suffice. And through my journeys and experiences, bees seem to help me build powerful connections whether it is with my colleagues at Colorado College, my neighbors in Vermont, or my newfound friends in South America. Thank you, bees!

Honey Gardens is sending a computer to this community of Mapuche. The Mapuche and other indigenous people around the world are being pushed off their land by the government and other groups of people. The Mapuche people have peacefully occupied their land for generations and generations, and many of them do not own deeds to that land. Even those who have deeds to land are intimated by the government, due to a very bloody past history. So when the local police officer puts up a fence on 100 hectares of their land, the Mapuche are afraid and unsure of how to act – they quietly submit to this treatment. We are helping them get a computer so that they can make contact with other communities around Argentina. There is a power behind numbers and organization. We are also helping them get a computer so that they can create a market for their goods in the US. Currently the government restricts the price that they can sell their woven goods for, and thus after a week’s worth of weaving, they receive about enough money to buy a half a week’s worth of food, not enough to sustain a person, let alone a family. We are helping them get this computer, to help them create communication, to help them make a network. We are grateful for your support which helps to make this happen.

We are having a gathering here on Saturday January 19, and we invite you to join us. The winter meeting of the Champlain Valley Honey Bee Cooperative is at 4:30 PM at the honey house, with a pot blessing dinner at 5 PM, and at 6 PM Ross Conrad will speak on the subject of his book, “Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture”, Colony Collapse Disorder: the current state of beekeeping and organic solutions.

Ross will talk about the alternatives to chemical practices. He has worked with Charles Mraz, the Vermont pioneer in beekeeping and bee venom therapy. This gathering is significant for honey bees and is typical of people all around the country coming together to collaborate on how to take care of the bees. As honey bees do not know political borders, the support of beekeeping spans people of all ages; we know that high school students to those in the retirement community to commercial beekeepers working with 1,500 colonies are coming on Saturday.

Around the turn of the century, people had a hive or two on their land just as they have animals or chickens now. This de-centralized hobby level of beekeeping is good for the bees. Organic policies are more apt to be followed, innovations pursued, and a strong mutual relationship develops. It is true that beekeeping is a challenge these days ~ after you get started, you will probably lose them after some winters. While a hive and equipment is an investment, the return is even greater – gallons of honey and also wax, pollen, and propolis if you gather these. Working with the bees is great exercise, and allows you to be outside and close to the land. Most learn to let go of the gloves and allow a few bee stings now and then. This is one of the strong anti-cancer programs one can be a part of; the bee sting is very good for you (if you are not allergic; seek advice first).

We have learned from the bees that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts; the bee hive is a model community, all working together for the common good. The worker bees go through a process of cross training and working for three or so days in every job in the hive, each directed to their survival and success of the family, such as gathering nectar, pollen or propolis, making beeswax from honey, guarding the hive from the aggressive cousins (wasps & hornets), feeding the queen, and other duties.

As we work with the bees to be their stewards, they bless us with the pollination of much of what we eat. The interest in communities working together to help the bees and neighbor teaching neighbor has never been more vibrant. We are all stronger by working together.

The light is returning. As the days get longer with more sunny minutes, the queen bees are laying more eggs and helping to prepare her families for the Spring that is coming.