Introducing my favorite environmentally-conscious mural artist, Matt Willey.

After one little encounter with a small honey bee, Matt has lovingly begun a global art project: The Good of the Hive. His commitment to this project is to hand-paint 50,000 honey bees – the number in a healthy, thriving hive – in murals around the world. Matt's mission is to ignite radical curiosity and active engagement around planetary health issues through art, bees, and storytelling. I invite you to learn more….

The Western Honey Bee

Honey bees are not a native North American species. European honey bees (Apis mellifera) were originally imported for honey production in the 17th century, 1622 to be exact. Interestingly the Native Americans dubbed them "the white man's fly." I'll bet you didn't realize that a honey bee can fly up to 15 miles per hour and that a honey bee worker only makes an average of 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime and that to make just a pound of honey there need to be 2 million flower visits! -so please savor your honey, this is not an easy task for our little friends.

“Bees never forget that they are part of something bigger than themselves… their hive is a part of them. What if we embodied this idea? What if we got curious about the world and each other again instead of intimidated by it? This is why I turn walls into windows – to remember that we are all connected… that separation is an illusion.” -Artist, Matt Willey

Honey Bee Colonies

A honey bee colony typically consists of three kinds of adult bees: workers, drones, and a queen.

• The job of the queen: Lay eggs

• The job of the drones: Mate with the queen

• The jobs of the worker bees: Gather nectar, Guard the hive and honey, Care for the queen and larvae, Keep the hive clean, and Produce honey.

As you can see honey bees are social insects. They live together in well-organized groups called colonies. Individual bees cannot survive without the support of the colony. To learn more read this comprehensive article published by the University of Delaware.

the health of our planet

Through Matt’s mural art, he is able to inspire education about our planetary health. He believes that human and planetary health is collective, and the global hive he is painting is a metaphor for the connectedness of all things. Six years into an estimated 20-year project, Matt has created 35 murals and installations with over 8600 hand-painted bees. He has reached hundreds of thousands of people and created large-scale works at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington DC, and at Burt’s Bees Global Headquarters. He has collaborated with the World Council of Peoples for the United Nations (WCPUN) and NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks Public Art Program. He has painted in a Tony-Winning Broadway star’s dressing room and his bees are on display at the American Embassy in Beijing, China.

Bees mean Business

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, honey bees pollinate $15 billion worth of crops in the United States each year, including more than 130 types of fruits, nuts, and vegetables. 2.70 million bee colonies in the United States, alone, produced 126 million pounds of honey in 2021. That year, the value of honey production in the United States was $321 million according to USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

The Importance of Bees

A study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, has shown that honey bees are the world's most important pollinators in natural ecosystems across the globe. Did you know, that according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one-third of our diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honey bee is responsible for 80% of that pollination? In a single year, one honey bee colony can gather about 40 pounds of pollen and 265 pounds of nectar.

“The Art Starts Creating You” - Matt Willey

The Importance of Matt

Follow Matt @thegoodofthehive as he visits schools and communities around the world educating our collective whole about the importance of our bees. In 2023 Matt will continue to move forward in the creation of The Good of the Hive's first documentary film. See the short film trailer by clicking here. Matt could really use some love on this project to keep it moving forward. Plus you can receive rewards and possibly have your name in the credits! 

Apiarist: Beekeeper

The scientific name for the honey bee is Apis mellifera, therefore an apiarist is a person who is commonly referred to as a beekeeper and makes a living keeping honey bees. Likewise, an apiary is a location where the hives of honey bees are kept. Apiaries come in many sizes and can be rural or urban depending on the honey production operation. 

Here on our farm, Windy Hill, we've enlisted the help of local Apiarist, Mark Antunes. Mark cares for our bees, extracts all honey, and because of our northern weather patterns, he even transports them to more temperate climates each winter. This has proven to be a good thing for their continued survival. Mark is always seeking host farms in this local area for his honey bee hives. If you would like to contact Mark, reach out to me in the comments below and I will get you in touch. I've also included a list of expert websites for your convenience.

• The Bucks County Beekeepers

• Bucks County Bee Company

• American Beekeeping Federation

rural and urban beekeeping

Rural Beekeeping is really just using a patch of land in more of a rural area used to raise bees. (it does not have to be a farm). Apiarists position one or more honey bee hives in this natural environment to support more pollination. The bees go to work quickly providing their services to enhance the growth of wild flowers, clover, vegetables, and more. If you are thinking about providing your own natural habitat for bees in the future, keep in mind a host farm requires plenty of food sources, water, and a healthy environment with plenty of natural resources such as grass, trees, and plants, and of course, it's important for there to be no pesticide use whatsoever. For your convenience, I've included a short list of supplies you may want to consider at the end of this blog.

Urban Beekeeping is just what it sounds like, an organic method for a city or town to diversify its ecosystem. If you are considering becoming an urban beekeeper, you must first do some research. Be sure to make sure it's legal to keep bees in your town or city. Next, be sure your bees will have enough space and the necessary food and water in order to thrive. Then, be sure to check with your neighbors, because although honeybees are generally not aggressive, if threatened they will sting and it’s very important to always see the advice of a skilled beekeeper before trying this at home.

Keep some bees

Bee-Keeping Supplies
Beekeeping Suit for men
Beekeeping Suit for women
Beehive
Beehive Smoker
Beehive Smoker Pellets

Honey Serving Supplies
Small Honey jars with cork lids
Small Jar Labels
Honey dipper sticks

What is Colony Collapse Disorder

Honey bee health is something we humans have been struggling with in recent years as our honey bee populations have been dwindling. To help you understand, Colony Collapse Disorder is the phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear and leave behind a queen, a plentiful food supply, and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees. There is often a combination of environmental factors and other stresses to consider when determining what has a significant effect on bee declines, including humanity's negative impacts.

Honey bee stressors and a link to learn more.

• Use of pesticides

• Stress due to management practices

• Varroa destructor mites

• Israeli Acute Paralysis virus and the Nosema parasite

• Climate change and habitat loss

• Not enough food or poor nutrition

If you enjoyed this blog please feel free to comment below. I read every inspiration that comes my way. Subscribe if you like this blog. Thank you. - Kim

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