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Kathleen B. Gillmann's avatar

Thanks so much for being so transparent about your journey learning about which bees are really most important to our native ecosystem. I think I was a first year Intern here in Fairfax County, VA when I learned that honeybees are not native. It was quite an epiphany! Kathleen, 3rd year Intern, Master Gardener

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Life in the Anthropocene's avatar

It is indeed an epiphany. Best!

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Mary Gill's avatar

What happened to the 80,000 honey bees? I love that we are focusing on our native bees now but I wonder how one stops raising honey bees?

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Life in the Anthropocene's avatar

I just left the hives to fend for themselves. Which they cannot, for too very long, without human intervention. "Summer" worker bees live for weeks. Overwintering bees, for several months. It is only the queen who is long lived (2-5 years). The hives died a natural death.

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