Breeding Queen Bees. Melanie Margarita Kirby

Which bee will be the chosen one, the queen bee, mother of the hive? How do bees choose their queen bee? What is royal jelly? Isn’t a queen bee any other ordinary bee that produces young? What really happens to honey bees and the plants when only one blooming plant is available? Bee researcher and beekeeper Melanie Margarita Kirby shares her connection with honey bees. Stewards of flowers, trees, and other plants, honey bees have been general pollinators before humans ever walked the earth. Melanie’s mission is to help sustain the continuity of pollination through queen bee breeding. For her, an indigenous person, she wants to reconnect with where our food comes from and the energy that goes into producing it, including the seed itself. Part 2.

Transcript
Catherine:

It is with sadness and a broken heart that I dedicate today's episode to my brother-in-law Ramon.

Catherine:

He passed very suddenly on father's day.

Catherine:

My sister Linda began dating Ray as a teenager.

Catherine:

They were together 36 years.

Catherine:

Ramon was very passionate about equality for the minority, and he became involved in Chicano studies..

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He loves nature.

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And one of his favorite activities was being in the mountains of New Mexico, hiking, backpacking,

Catherine:

camping, watching the birds, anything with my sister.

Catherine:

Ramona and Linda were going to write a book of their adventures calling it, 'Is there a lake

Catherine:

around here?' As a teacher of electronics at the vocational school, he received a standing

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ovation well-deserved by the way, on his last day of classes when he retired from teaching.

Catherine:

Loving nature and wanting to do his part as a steward, he and Linda landscaped

Catherine:

their backyard, where it is now a certified wildlife habitat, a gorgeous wildlife habitat.

Catherine:

Ramon and Linda researched local plants that would sustain pollinators of all types as

Catherine:

well as birds, bunnies, skunks, you name it.

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The backyard is a safe refuge for all wildlife.

Catherine:

Ramon had a very warm heart and a lap for cats with his family.

Catherine:

He fostered many cats.

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But kind of the funny part is he became a foster failure with Dora, short, for adorable, as

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she became a permanent member of the family.

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And she's a beautiful black cat..

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Beautiful yellow green eyes.

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One winter, not too long ago, there were three feral kittens that became buried during a snow storm.

Catherine:

Well, he dug them out and Linda and Ramon took them to Street Cat Hub where they were adopted.

Catherine:

He wanted the best for everybody in his life.

Catherine:

And he so much believe strongly in equal rights and democracy.

Catherine:

And he was a strong voice.

Catherine:

I learned a lot from him.

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He was inspiring.

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He believed society should take time to stop and smell the enchiladas..

Catherine:

And in today's episode, it's to stop and smell the flowers for the honey bees.

Catherine:

So there's so much of a wonderful connection that Ramon has with nature..

Catherine:

I'm going to miss Ramon so much, and I dedicate this wonderful episode on honey bees to Ramon..

Catherine:

RamonI love you dearly.

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Today's episode is part two, your positive imprint.

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Conscientious beekeeping, sustainable beekeeping.

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These are important words for guest Melanie Margarita Kirby member of Tortugas Pueblo in New Mexico.

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Melanie has been all over the world, studying wildlife, especially honey bees.

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Her studies landed her with Washington state university, where she is

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finishing her studies in entomology.

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Continuing her studies in sustainable beekeeping and honey bee research

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she was awarded a Fulbright National Geographic scholarship where her research took her to Spain.

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But unfortunately COVID changed her research trajectory and she had to return to the states.

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Melanie is committed to having a hand in maintaining the world's honey bee population

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through her research and conscientious queen bee

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rearing.

Catherine:

Melanie Margarita Kirby it is so good to have you on the show.

Catherine:

Welcome.

Melanie Kirby:

Thank you so nice to be here.

Melanie Kirby:

It's so wonderful to

Catherine:

meet you

Catherine:

. Melanie Kirby: Bees , are needed and more

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And it really starts first and foremost with habitat.

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So we really need to build up and support and keep our Wildlands and our wild landscapes and even

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our urban landscapes diverse and have a variety of blooms so that it can feed all the various

Catherine:

organisms that deserve to be on this planet

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along with us.

Catherine:

Now I want to talk about your queen bees.

Catherine:

Zia queen bees.

Melanie Kirby:

The the symbol, the Zia symbol is, is very symbolic and important for us here in New Mexico.

Melanie Kirby:

, and its roots are with,a pueblo community the Zia tribe.

Melanie Kirby:

And so my interpretation of that is is slightly modified to, to better encompass, my work with these

Melanie Kirby:

because instead of it being a, a circle with four rays on each side, it's a hexagon with a bee in the middle.

Melanie Kirby:

But I, I definitely credit its roots with the Zia tribe and that's , their symbol

Melanie Kirby:

that's been borrowed for our state flag.

Melanie Kirby:

And the reason it's it's such a becoming symbol is because it's not only represents the sun, which we

Melanie Kirby:

get a lot of here in the high desert, but there's four rays on top and four rays on each side and

Melanie Kirby:

four rays on the bottom and each ray signifies a stage uh, the ones on top are four directions.

Melanie Kirby:

North, East, South, West.

Melanie Kirby:

The ones on one side are going to signify the a times of day, Dawn day, dusk and night.

Melanie Kirby:

The next four symbolize the, uh, the seasons spring, summer, winter, fall.

Melanie Kirby:

And then you have the final four, which symbolize the stages of life- so infancy,

Melanie Kirby:

adolescence, adulthood, and elder.

Melanie Kirby:

And so it's really a symbol that encompasses all of life, really which

Melanie Kirby:

is what, what I really like about it.

Melanie Kirby:

And that really resonates with me.

Melanie Kirby:

And, and with the cycle of the bees, they've been here long before us.

Melanie Kirby:

And my hope is that they'll be here long after us, too.

Melanie Kirby:

And the fact that they help to bring about these various cycles.

Melanie Kirby:

The bees navigate and find their food using the sun.

Melanie Kirby:

They're able to navigate between their home and where there's flowers that they can find food at.

Melanie Kirby:

They relay that to their sisters doing what's called a 'waggle dance'.

Melanie Kirby:

And so they navigate using that sun.

Melanie Kirby:

They also have their own biological, circadian and seasonal cycles.

Melanie Kirby:

Right?

Melanie Kirby:

So in the spring is when we tend to start thinking about pollinators and bees because

Melanie Kirby:

they're coming out and you can hear them.

Melanie Kirby:

And the flowers start to bloom and the bees are seizing that opportunity to not only get the food, they need.

Melanie Kirby:

The nectar serves as their carbohydrate in the pollen serves as their protein, but also

Melanie Kirby:

because it's part of this age, old choreography, this dance between plants and insects.

Melanie Kirby:

Plants wouldn't create a perfume or even create a nectar if they didn't need pollination, if

Melanie Kirby:

they weren't trying to entice another organism to help them with their own biological production.

Melanie Kirby:

And so it's really this beautiful choreography that happens between the

Melanie Kirby:

insects and the plants year after year.

Melanie Kirby:

And that's what, what gives us, all the various fruits and vegetables and nuts that we eat.

Melanie Kirby:

Right.

Melanie Kirby:

How that relates to my Queens, my queen breeding farm endeavor is that, as a seed saver, finding

Melanie Kirby:

those bees that are acclimated to different areas or that are adaptable to different zones and

Melanie Kirby:

then being able to nurture their own seasonal cycles and then to be able to share them with,

Melanie Kirby:

uh, other beekeepers in different places or within my region helps that story of continuity.

Melanie Kirby:

That's kind of where it taps back into my own, heritage

Melanie Kirby:

as an indigenous person that it's this worldview that we're all connected and this continuity.

Melanie Kirby:

It's a legacy that we have a responsibility to, to nurture whether it's passing on our stories

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and traditions to the next generation and our youth, or whether it's caring for our land.

Melanie Kirby:

We also use another word here in New Mexico, 'carencia' which means to care and to really nurture something.

Melanie Kirby:

And so when we nurture the land, when we take care of the land, She can take care of us back.

Melanie Kirby:

Right.

Melanie Kirby:

And that really does start with soil and rebuilding soil, revitalizing soil, taking

Melanie Kirby:

care of our soil and then taking care of our waters and our air and our seeds.

Melanie Kirby:

So that then we can really nurture these cycles of growth and rebirth each season and

Melanie Kirby:

ultimately it's really so that we can eat.

Melanie Kirby:

Right.

Melanie Kirby:

So, so my efforts with queen bee rearing are really to, to just help food production and kind of tapping

Melanie Kirby:

back into my peace Corps experience, being exposed to different food systems and how different cultures

Melanie Kirby:

approach their own food system -that really is a broader picture that we don't always think

Melanie Kirby:

about, especially depending on where you're at, we think, well, I'll just go to the store and buy it.

Melanie Kirby:

Right.

Melanie Kirby:

But we don't tend to think, well, where did it come from and how did it get here?

Melanie Kirby:

How much energy went into producing it?

Melanie Kirby:

We've become really disconnected with where our food comes from and it comes from the earth.

Melanie Kirby:

So that means we're becoming disconnected from even the earth under our feet.

Melanie Kirby:

That Has it really impacted our, our understanding of our not only who we are, but our role, as humans

Melanie Kirby:

on this planet and the sooner that we can really reconnect with where our food comes from and all

Melanie Kirby:

the energy that went into producing it from the farmer to the, even the, the person who trucked

Melanie Kirby:

it there, but also to the actual life forces that gave that food it's life, down to the seed itself.

Melanie Kirby:

I think the more that we can reconnect with that, the more reverence that we will

Melanie Kirby:

have for the gift of life that, that it is.

Melanie Kirby:

It's just really such a gift.

Catherine:

Andy Friedrichs, you alluded to a little bit earlier with our discussion

Catherine:

with Norway, he'd mentioned the honey bees there , in Norway where he's at in the higher

Catherine:

forest that the flowers weren't coming back.

Catherine:

And he hadn't seen honey bees in a few years.

Catherine:

And so he wanted to bring them back.

Catherine:

And when he brought them back, then he started seeing now more plumage on trees, more flowers, uh, and so on.

Catherine:

I think it was just two hives.

Catherine:

But it was enough to sustain this area.

Catherine:

Everything you're saying is so important.

Catherine:

So let's talk about your, your queen bees a little more, you, you were

Catherine:

mentioning them and how you breed them.

Catherine:

How on earth do you breed a queen bee that the beehive, the rest of the bees will accept?

Melanie Kirby:

Yeah, it's it's a part of that biomimicry process that I mentioned and to keep

Melanie Kirby:

it sort of, uh, I guess, concise and explanation.

Melanie Kirby:

So I don't lose people too much with all the genetic jargon and even epigenetic jargon, which

Melanie Kirby:

I'll, I'll touch on that though, because I'm really fascinated with what we call epigenetics.

Melanie Kirby:

But uh, the colony will rear a queen under three circumstances.

Melanie Kirby:

The first is emergency.

Melanie Kirby:

The queen has died, she's gotten old.

Melanie Kirby:

She's, she's no longer there.

Melanie Kirby:

And so they know they need to queen.

Melanie Kirby:

The second is a supersedure.

Melanie Kirby:

So if a queen is Starting to what we call fail, meaning that she's running out of of

Melanie Kirby:

sperm to lay fertilized eggs or she's become ill then, uh, they may decide to replace her.

Melanie Kirby:

The third is swarming.

Melanie Kirby:

So when a colony is in its most ideal condition, meaning lots of resources are present- forage,

Melanie Kirby:

floral resources, their space is getting cramped they're building up in population,

Melanie Kirby:

then they want to reproduce on a colony level.

Melanie Kirby:

And so that's what a swarm is.

Melanie Kirby:

It's a reproduction on the colony level where the original queen, they will actually starve her for a

Melanie Kirby:

few days so that she loses enough weight to fly because when she's laying eggs, she's, she's too heavy to fly.

Melanie Kirby:

And so then a portion of the colony with the original queen will fly off.

Melanie Kirby:

And they'll have made some new what we call queen cells or cocoons that will then emerge out.

Melanie Kirby:

And these Virgin Queens will couple things.

Melanie Kirby:

They will fly out with a portion more of the colony.

Melanie Kirby:

These are called after swarms.

Melanie Kirby:

They will also, some of them will find each other and fight to the death because only one can remain.

Melanie Kirby:

And so swarming is the most ideal condition.

Melanie Kirby:

Emergency and supersedure are, they can rear the Queens in those conditions, but those

Melanie Kirby:

are definitely conditions what we call under duress when the bees are stressed, right.

Melanie Kirby:

But for swarming it's when conditions are great.

Melanie Kirby:

And so they want to reproduce on a colony level.

Melanie Kirby:

So I try to nurture that process.

Melanie Kirby:

And so instead of letting the bees swarm, which is like a cow, having a calf and then the calf

Melanie Kirby:

runs off, or the cow runs off and you're left with the calf I try to actually manage that swarm.

Melanie Kirby:

So when the bees are indicating that they're getting cramped for space and they start to rear

Melanie Kirby:

a bunch of what we call queen cells towards the bottom of their honeycomb then I can help them and

Melanie Kirby:

nurture that that natural process of reproduction.

Melanie Kirby:

So I do a thing called grafting, which is just transferring larva and, uh, there's Queens and workers.

Melanie Kirby:

There's one queen in each hive and then worker bees, which are her daughters and then drones,

Melanie Kirby:

which are the males, her sons -the workers are actually similar to the queen herself.

Melanie Kirby:

They come from fertilized eggs.

Melanie Kirby:

So they they have their mother's information and their father's information.

Melanie Kirby:

The drones on the other hand come from unfertilized eggs.

Melanie Kirby:

So they only have their mother's information.

Melanie Kirby:

So interestingly enough, within one hive family, because of a Virgin queen, when she goes out to mate,

Melanie Kirby:

she will mate with multiple drones from other hives.

Melanie Kirby:

Within one hive superorganism, there's what you call sub sister and super sister families.

Melanie Kirby:

And so some of the bees have the same mother and dad, other bees have the same mother, but

Melanie Kirby:

a different dad; just within the same hive.

Melanie Kirby:

And that's actually , the bees own natural way of 1.

Melanie Kirby:

Preventing and breeding 2.

Melanie Kirby:

, also developing what I like to call an overlapping network of health.

Melanie Kirby:

So it would be like, if, if all of us were in the same room and we only had one father, right,

Melanie Kirby:

and say that father had congenital heart disease, then we would all be predisposed to that condition.

Melanie Kirby:

Right.

Melanie Kirby:

But because as a society, we all have different fathers, but we're still a society right?

Melanie Kirby:

If one of, one of our fathers had that condition and it got passed on to us, then we might have

Melanie Kirby:

the, the ailment, but the rest of society could go on without us, if, if we succumb to it.

Melanie Kirby:

Right?

Melanie Kirby:

So the same within, uh, uh, a hive organism or what we call a superorganism, it's just one hive family.

Melanie Kirby:

There's actually a lot of different genetics within there.

Melanie Kirby:

And so this process of grafting is me just transferring the fertilized larva into special

Melanie Kirby:

little cups, which are the same shape and size as natural queen cells and putting them into a hive

Melanie Kirby:

what we call a nursery hive or a cell builder, which will then feed these developing larva, a

Melanie Kirby:

lot of Royal jelly and they will turn into Queens.

Melanie Kirby:

So that's the other really interesting aspect of queen production.

Melanie Kirby:

Any fertilized egg it's going to be a female and any single one of those has

Melanie Kirby:

the potential to turn into a queen bee.

Melanie Kirby:

The only thing that makes them a queen bee is the diet.

Melanie Kirby:

So all, all of the babies, whether they're male or female actually are an egg for

Melanie Kirby:

three days, and then they hatch from the egg.

Melanie Kirby:

And then the, what we call the nurse bees, the younger worker bees will feed

Melanie Kirby:

them Royal jelly for the first few days.

Melanie Kirby:

Royal jelly is like breast milk.

Melanie Kirby:

It's super concentrated vitamins and minerals and amino acids.

Melanie Kirby:

And after about the third day, though, then the diet changes to what we call Bee Bread

Melanie Kirby:

which is a mix between pollen and honey.

Melanie Kirby:

And so the males get, fed this bee bread and the worker bees get fed bee bread and only a

Melanie Kirby:

queen bee will continually be fed Royal jelly.

Melanie Kirby:

So if her diet changes, she'll become a worker bee, but if her diet stays the same, she'll become a queen bee.

Melanie Kirby:

And that's all just hive mechanics.

Melanie Kirby:

The hives themselves, the bees within them, the worker bees will decide

Melanie Kirby:

who's going to be a queen and who isn't.

Melanie Kirby:

When I do what's called grafting and I'm transferring larva I'm, I'm nurturing that process, but

Melanie Kirby:

I'm also selecting which larva I want to use.

Melanie Kirby:

So I like to select for longevity, which is what I call an umbrella trait.

Melanie Kirby:

Meaning that, over time, time basically selects the bees.

Melanie Kirby:

So if they're not going to be productive, then they're not going to make it.

Melanie Kirby:

If they don't stay gentle, then they're going to be replaced.

Melanie Kirby:

If they are not pest and disease resistant and they succumb to an ailment, they're not going to survive.

Melanie Kirby:

So I pick all of my breeder hives that are minimum two years old, because

Melanie Kirby:

then they've lived through two winters.

Melanie Kirby:

They've lived through a couple different dirts and spring buildups and they've remained healthy.

Melanie Kirby:

And so then I can go, oh, wow.

Melanie Kirby:

This one's still doing good after a couple of years.

Melanie Kirby:

I want to try and nurture that process of her creating more daughters.

Melanie Kirby:

And basically longevity by selecting for that trait.

Melanie Kirby:

It's it's, a heritable trait..

Melanie Kirby:

So when you select for it, you're basically passing those genes on to the next generation.

Melanie Kirby:

And that's where it taps into what I call epigenetics.

Melanie Kirby:

Not a term I, I made up it's it already exists, but epigenetics is basically that interaction

Melanie Kirby:

between the environment on on your genes, right?

Melanie Kirby:

So that then your genes are either turned on or turned off, but they learn and they adapt.

Melanie Kirby:

And so when we think about strong bees or strong hives that are healthy, it's actually

Melanie Kirby:

not just their own genes that are doing it.

Melanie Kirby:

It's the fact that they're in an environment that is nurturing that process.

Melanie Kirby:

And so again, we see that

Melanie Kirby:

sort of choreography between environment and the organism and how that basically

Melanie Kirby:

allows them to behave and survive.

Catherine:

Uh, okay.

Catherine:

Uh, this is, you have given so much.

Catherine:

No, you've given some incredible, explanations on because we always hear, about the Royal jelly.

Catherine:

We hear beekeepers talk about it, but they don't go into the in-depth because I, I

Catherine:

didn't know what types of questions to ask.

Catherine:

So this is extremely educational.

Catherine:

And so I do have a question regarding beekeepers and the queen bees.

Catherine:

Why is it and maybe I'm misinformed, but I hear that beekeepers sometimes

Catherine:

each year kill off their queen bee.

Catherine:

Is that false information?

Melanie Kirby:

Yeah, there are some people who do do that.

Melanie Kirby:

And sometimes it's because people think, well, if I have a younger queen, she's

Melanie Kirby:

going to be stronger and more productive.

Melanie Kirby:

There's really not I want to say a strong, scientific case for that being promoted constantly.

Melanie Kirby:

But we've all seen it with, uh, with other organisms as well as, as we age, we do slow down a little.

Melanie Kirby:

So that does happen with, with Queens and insects as well.

Melanie Kirby:

However a new queen each year is going to do well, but you don't know what her genetic

Melanie Kirby:

potential is if you're replacing her without really letting her live her life fully.

Melanie Kirby:

And so when you buy a queen that hasn't been selected for endurance then you get on that treadmill where

Melanie Kirby:

then you may have to constantly replace because the ones you have may not survive without it, right.

Melanie Kirby:

Without you replacing it.

Melanie Kirby:

I, on the other hand, want bees that can endure.

Melanie Kirby:

So I'm selecting off of the ones that can endure so that I know that when I'm sharing them with

Melanie Kirby:

people, these are bees that will last, under the right conditions should last a while.

Melanie Kirby:

And in nature, I mean, queen bees have been known to live for, up to eight,

Melanie Kirby:

10 years, but that was years ago.

Melanie Kirby:

And because humans have altered the environment so much, we're lucky if we get bees to live a few years.

Melanie Kirby:

Wow.

Melanie Kirby:

And that's actually in Europe and Europe, they, they find hives with Queens that are still five years old.

Melanie Kirby:

Here in the states it's very rare to find Queens that are several years old.

Melanie Kirby:

And in fact, the norm that you hear from commercial beekeepers coming out of California is that

Melanie Kirby:

queens only lasts them six months.

Melanie Kirby:

That's a travesty because it's really showing that there's, there's some sincere problems, that we're

Melanie Kirby:

either not selecting or nurturing strains that are naturally adaptive meaning that they might be producing

Melanie Kirby:

bees that they're having to constantly crutch, meaning constantly feed them or constantly medicate them.

Melanie Kirby:

And, it's, it's a quality of life thing then.

Melanie Kirby:

There's all different kinds of beekeepers, just like there's all different kinds of parents.

Melanie Kirby:

Right.

Melanie Kirby:

And some people do it really well and some people don't do it so well.

Melanie Kirby:

And so, when people are wanting to keep bees, , first and foremost, they should

Melanie Kirby:

connect with their local club or organization so that they can find some local mentors.

Melanie Kirby:

But I always really encourage people to find bees from a producer that's based near them

Melanie Kirby:

because then you're able to really ask them those questions like how did they produce them?

Melanie Kirby:

Do they give their bees medications.

Melanie Kirby:

If they are giving their bees medications what kind of medications?

Melanie Kirby:

Because if you're getting bees from an area that are constantly crutched and then you get them and

Melanie Kirby:

think, oh, I'm just gonna let them do their own thing you might just be setting them up to die.

Melanie Kirby:

So if you can start with bees that are naturally resilient and that are a good

Melanie Kirby:

match, it's just like plant zones and what we call 'land (inaudible) seeds, right?

Melanie Kirby:

We're not going to buy tropical plants and try and grow them here in the high desert.

Melanie Kirby:

They're, they're not going to live for very long because it's just not the right environment.

Melanie Kirby:

So the same is to be said for bees.

Melanie Kirby:

And the production methods- the way people produce them.

Melanie Kirby:

So just like fruit, if we pick fruit, when it's unripe and you ship it halfway around the world,

Melanie Kirby:

it's still going to be unripe when it gets there.

Melanie Kirby:

Right.

Melanie Kirby:

But if you can harvest at the right time when the fruit or the queen bee is mature, and she's what

Melanie Kirby:

we call a proven layer, she's laying properly, she's laying well, she's, she's seemingly healthy.

Melanie Kirby:

Then when you harvest her and share her with somebody else, then she'll have a better

Melanie Kirby:

opportunity to not only establish but to be accepted and to be accepted and endure.

Melanie Kirby:

Right.

Melanie Kirby:

So, there are some places, where people do think they've got to re-Queen every year.

Melanie Kirby:

I'm not one of those beekeepers, but there are some that do think that, and for whatever reason they

Melanie Kirby:

want just a young queen and only a young queen.

Melanie Kirby:

But I think there is something to be said about selecting for those

Melanie Kirby:

bees that are actually really adapted to an area and not know how to really endure over time.

Catherine:

Okay.

Catherine:

Well that answers the question.

Catherine:

And then we mentioned the almond orchards in California, where beekeepers will travel, hundreds and

Catherine:

hundreds of miles with their beehives to pollinate.

Catherine:

So why do they have to do that?

Catherine:

Aren't there enough bees in California where they'll go to the orchards or are we that much

Catherine:

in dire straights where our natural bees that are just living wherever , are not enough to

Catherine:

pollinate the needs of society and our food supply.

Melanie Kirby:

That's a great question.

Melanie Kirby:

There aren't enough honey bee colonies there.

Catherine:

Oh my gosh.

Catherine:

I was hoping you would not say that...

Melanie Kirby:

which is why a lot of beekeepers take their bees there

Melanie Kirby:

because they know there's a need for it.

Melanie Kirby:

But the reason for that need has been because when we have these large tracks of monoculture,

Melanie Kirby:

which a thousand miles of the almonds, it has become, it's monoculture, meaning one crop, right?

Melanie Kirby:

Then, , when it's in bloom, it's amazing.

Melanie Kirby:

But once it's out of bloom, it becomes a food desert and there's no other bloom

Melanie Kirby:

available to sustain even the bees.

Melanie Kirby:

So even the honey bees that are trucked in then have to be trucked out because that's not enough bloom for them

Melanie Kirby:

to put away enough reserves to last the whole year on.

Melanie Kirby:

Right.

Melanie Kirby:

And so when we think of these other varying pollinator species as well, if they don't have

Melanie Kirby:

additional types of food to live on at other times of the year, they can't survive there either.

Melanie Kirby:

So there's been actually some great and wonderful efforts by various organizations to help change that.

Melanie Kirby:

And to work with orchard owners to start putting in what we call hedge rows or cover crops or

Melanie Kirby:

various pollinator friendly plants around their orchards and even now throughout their orchards

Melanie Kirby:

so that there's a diversity of nutrition, right.

Melanie Kirby:

Because nobody wants to just eat white bread alone.

Melanie Kirby:

That's not very nutritious.

Melanie Kirby:

So even bees that they only have one kind of pollen, only one kind of nectar

Melanie Kirby:

unless they're a specialist, right.

Melanie Kirby:

That's totally different because they've evolved to just survive off of that kind.

Melanie Kirby:

But when they're generalists, they need a diversity of nutrition.

Melanie Kirby:

And that only comes from having a diversity of blooms.

Melanie Kirby:

So, there are some organizations that are really working hard and have made some great

Melanie Kirby:

strides, I'd say over the past 10 years.

Melanie Kirby:

And even 15 years in trying to work with, uh, farmers to create additional pollinator-friendly

Melanie Kirby:

habitat sites on their properties

Melanie Kirby:

so that our dependence on this one, bee and from coming from so far away can be lessened, right?

Melanie Kirby:

So that we can quit exploiting this one sole organism and also help promote all these other various

Melanie Kirby:

pollinator species that have just as much right.

Melanie Kirby:

They deserve to live here too.

Melanie Kirby:

Right.

Catherine:

Absolutely.

Catherine:

Oh, that was a great explanation.

Catherine:

And so is a butterfly, a general pollinator or

Catherine:

specialist?

Melanie Kirby:

It depends.

Melanie Kirby:

I'm not super nuanced in, I just was curious uh, Situation.

Melanie Kirby:

However, there are some that that might be specialists.

Melanie Kirby:

Like I know there's moths particular moths and orchids that are very specialist that code linked together.

Melanie Kirby:

But I do, I have seen butterflies on different kinds of flowers, then you have the monarchs who are really

Melanie Kirby:

attuned to milkweeds and different kinds of flowers.

Melanie Kirby:

So, I think you have both, but don't quote me on that.

Melanie Kirby:

, in general, just need more habitat.

Melanie Kirby:

We need more flowers and we need them through the varying seasons, not just in spring.

Melanie Kirby:

We need some that are available in the summer and some that are available in the fall.

Melanie Kirby:

Right.

Melanie Kirby:

And for places where people live Where they still have bloom in the, in what we consider to be winter

Melanie Kirby:

that, that, that there's something available.

Melanie Kirby:

Sure.

Melanie Kirby:

Trees, flowers are really good because it's something we can actively do, but trees are even better because

Melanie Kirby:

they take roots and they survive year after year.

Melanie Kirby:

Right.

Melanie Kirby:

Santa Fe is developing a larger Santa Fe pollinator trail with the Xerxes society,

Melanie Kirby:

which is a wonderful organization that works a lot for invertebrate conservation.

Melanie Kirby:

I think Santa Fe is working towards becoming what they call a bee city USA, which is basically the city, uh,

Melanie Kirby:

city magistrates actually verbally and formally declare declare their city as a pollinator friendly site.

Melanie Kirby:

And so there's efforts between the department of transportation and the housing authority and

Melanie Kirby:

building and zoning and all this stuff to really incorporate more pollinator friendly strips, whether

Melanie Kirby:

it's on medians, parking lots and things like that.

Melanie Kirby:

So, there's some really cool programs out there.

Melanie Kirby:

There's bee friendly farming.

Melanie Kirby:

There's even bee campus USA.

Melanie Kirby:

There's a lot of different groups that are doing some wonderful work to help promote all

Melanie Kirby:

different kinds of pollinators and predominantly pollinator habitat cause that's where it starts.

Melanie Kirby:

If we have the habitat, it's like the field of dreams, right.

Melanie Kirby:

If you build it, they will come.

Melanie Kirby:

So if we can, have these spaces with flowers The pollinators will come, which

Catherine:

means that you listeners, would need to do a little bit of research as to what flowers are

Catherine:

going to grow or what trees will grow in your area.

Catherine:

That is something that obviously Melanie Kirby promotes as well as if you remember Andy Friedrichs.

Catherine:

That's one of his educational tools is to get people to grow the habitat for the pollinators in their area.

Catherine:

Melanie, you have been so enlightening as well as inspiring.

Catherine:

I so much enjoyed this.

Catherine:

So yeah, you hit upon a lot.

Catherine:

And I ask this of all my guests.

Catherine:

Is there anything that you didn't get to talk about that you really want to talk about?

Melanie Kirby:

Well I did talk about a lot.

Melanie Kirby:

And thank you so much for, for taking that little sort of magic carpet ride

Melanie Kirby:

with me over all these different topics.

Melanie Kirby:

Which does bring me to, one last thought, which is, how one of the smallest of beasts, really is so paramount

Melanie Kirby:

and poignant in our, not only our survival, but in our, in our planet's pertuberance, so to speak.

Melanie Kirby:

And so it's really amazing to me how cool bees have connected me to various aspects

Melanie Kirby:

of, of life, everything from food systems, to science, to education and research, to farming.

Melanie Kirby:

And I just mentioned, I have a little art installation, so I mean, I'm even using

Melanie Kirby:

my collaborative artworks with my bees.

Melanie Kirby:

They built some honeycomb and some cool glass heads which I have on display here in downtown Taos.

Melanie Kirby:

And I think that that's it.

Melanie Kirby:

Anything that we really find inspiring for us can really connect us to the broader world.

Melanie Kirby:

And I'm so, so glad and honored that you that you asked me to, to share my story and, and

Melanie Kirby:

my thoughts on bees with everybody, I really hope that it does inspire other people and

Melanie Kirby:

that you can really make your positive imprint.

Melanie Kirby:

I would just really like to encourage folks to take time, to stop and smell the flowers and to plant

Melanie Kirby:

more flowers and to to really work with each other and with their local communities to provide space

Melanie Kirby:

and forage for all of our pollinator friends.

Catherine:

Melanie margarita Kirby.

Catherine:

Thank you so much for sharing all that you have learned with us here at your positive imprint.

Melanie Kirby:

Thank you, Catherine.

Melanie Kirby:

This is great.

Catherine:

You're welcome.

Catherine:

Well, everybody plant!

Catherine:

Yeah.

Catherine:

Your positive imprint.

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