Seeds Of Wellbeing - SOW

Ep 53. What's The Buzz?! Find out from Susan Collins with Bird and Bee Hawaii

• Jim Crum / Susan Collins • Season 3 • Episode 2

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In this episode we speak with Susan Collins, owner of Bird and Bee Hawai‘i on the Big Island of Hawai‘i. As you will hear, Susan has gone to great lengths to educate folks about bees, bee keeping, and legislation related to bees in Hawaii. We talked about how she got here, where things are going, and then heard a very recent update related to colony collapse on the mainland, and the impact of government cutbacks, DOGE (the US Department of Government Efficiency) and the spending freezes implemented by the Trump administration.

Brought to you by University of Hawaii College of Tropical Ag. and Human Resources (CTAHR), and the Seeds of Well-being (SOW) Project. This podcast is supported by the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN) grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Hawaii Department of Agriculture.

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The views, information or opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the individuals involved, and do not necessarily represent those of the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience, our funders, or any of the organizations affiliated with this project. Welcome to a seeds of well being"Experts in the Field" podcast featuring Hawaii agriculture producers and affiliates working in their field of expertise to support agriculture in Hawaii, in the United States and in some cases around the world. These podcasts are made possible by a grant from the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience, also known as CTAHR and the Seeds of Wellbeing or SOW project, and is supported by a grant from the US Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Hawaii Department of Agriculture. Aloha. Thanks for being willing to be recorded for Seeds of Wellbeing podcast. Here with Susan and from Bird and Bee in Ahualoa You always want to be aware of anything that looks off in your hive. They don't mind being knocked off that way, huh? No, it's easier for them than being smoked or or brushed off. All these farmers are losing their shirts because they're not they're not able to export like they used to also. And then on top of it, when we have emergencies like we're having right now with a colony collapse disorder, we don't have scientists looking into why it's happening and then to stop it. So we're in kind of free fall with beekeeping in the United States right now. With no net, and the net being pulled away Right In this episode, we speak with Susan Collins, owner of Bird and Bee Hawaii, on the Big Island of Hawaii. As you will hear, Susan has gone to great lengths to educate folks about bees, beekeeping and legislation related to beekeeping in Hawaii. We talked about how she got here, where things are going, and then heard a very recent update related to recent colony collapse on the mainland and the impact of government cutbacks, DOGE, and the spending freezes implemented by the Trump administration. So Susan, tell us a little bit about your background - your Hawaii story, as sometimes we call it, how you got here, and why, and Bird and Bee Hawaii and how that started, and give us a little background into those days. Sure. So I grew up on a farm, actually, in New Jersey, and it was a pretty rural area, so I spent a lot of time taking care of animals when I was growing up. And I went through the United States, living in nine different states, different points, and I came to Hawaii as a librarian. I worked as a librarian for a few years, and also as a teacher. I have a background. I have a master's in education as well as library and information science, and as life kind of progressed, I really wanted to stay at home and farm more, and I was always trying to think about that and figure it out in the back of my mind. And during COVID, I started a small business around my beekeeping just because I noticed there's no bee supply store, place to get bee supplies in Hawaii at my house. So I started just with a palette at a time, selling to friends or a few people I knew. And during COVID, everything kind of got turned upside down, and I was able to think more out of the box, and also take a lot of online trainings on creating a business. And around that time, I started teaching courses, so I have a four part course that I teach. And around that time I also started writing grants for my business. So that's how I had this building built, and that's how I kind of started growing is through grant writing, SBA short term loans for small businesses, things like that. And one thing led to another, and all of a sudden I was a full time beekeeper with four different incomes. So I teach a four part beekeeping course. I give a two hour tour to visitors to the Big Island. So half the time, actually, they are from Hawaii, and they are just being inquisitive. And then the other half hour tours from other places, other countries. Or the mainland United States. I also sell the equipment, and I do removals from people's homes. Four part course. How did you Is that something you designed and came up with, or was that inspired by someone else? It was inspired by a mentor of mine, Richard Spiegel, and he taught this four part course, I think even 20 years ago, or something like that. And he saw how much I wanted information, and he said, You know what? I've been taught this in about 10 years, but let's, let's put this four part course together. You just get the people. So I put it together. I advertised for and brought 12 people together for this course, and it was at his house, which is down the road from here. And then I wanted to do it again. People wanted more. They wanted more. People wanted this course. And he wasn't really interested for different reasons. So I thought, well, I'm an educator. I can kind of put something together. And I put together my own design course inspired by what he taught, but also different, a different kind of format. So more hands on. I think the hands on approach is very important to beekeeping. I don't think that everything can be learned from just online. There's a lot of information out there. It can become very confusing. And Hawaii's beekeeping is very different, because we get to keep bees year round and in most places in the world you don't. It's kind of like we find in agriculture, where don't believe what you see on YouTube, necessarily, because it may not work here Right. Exactly. Yeah. So COVID, so it was one of the benefits, I guess, of COVID for you, was evolution or recreation or solidification, perhaps of Bird and B Hawaii Definitely What are... I'll put links in the show notes so that folks can find your website. And what inspired the name? I always had that name in my mind, yeah, Just materialized? Because I have lots of birds of all different types, Yeah. Guinea hens, ducks, peacocks and chickens, and a lot of people don't necessarily have that also. I don't sell a lot of them, but they're here, and they're definitely part of the landscape of my five acre property. So tell us what what your plans are for Bird and Bee Hawaii for the future? That's a really good question. I'd like to know too, See what presents itself? Yes. I all four streams of what I've kind of formulated for my business are are equally as important to me. So I sometimes think I want to focus on 2 hour bee tours and promoting that more to visitors, but then I really love teaching a four part course. I think it's really important, because many people will just get bees here, put them in a box, and then not know what to do next, lose their bees, and then they contact me, and in the process lose hundreds of dollars or more or more, and I think it's reality. And also, a lot of people go online to get their bee equipment, and a lot of it doesn't work out very well for them, and they don't know why. From what I understand, it sounds like there's a pretty high failure rate for beekeeping for that first year, especially in general. Is that true? Yeah, I I read somewhere 80% which I could see. If people have a couple bad encounters or situations, they don't, they're not interested anymore, because it just seems too hard. And usually that's that's just the norm when you first start beekeeping, because there's so much that can go wrong. Yeah, interesting. So education, educating oneself, sounds like it's key to success. Yes, Both initially and ongoing as well? I think so. I go to beekeeping conferences on the mainland. We don't have any here in Hawaii, and that's where I've learned the most and become a better beekeeper, is by going to these conferences and learning from speakers and research that's going on in other places in the world. There are a few other people in Hawaii that I kind of see as a mentor, and I have learned a lot from but Hawaii can become very insular very quickly, I think, and especially on the Big Island. And I think it's important to go out and learn from what other people are doing in the world. So... fail to plan and plan to fail? Is that the addage? It sounds like it applies to beekeeping as well. Yeah, and keeping insects is very different than keeping mammals, or keeping plants, and just because honey bees go along with pollination, people assume that it'll just be an easy one, because they already are planting something and they already have chickens or something, but it's totally, totally different. So there's, over the years, there's been news about bees, more recently, about the critical function of these and pollinating in our food system. I think we've heard about killer bees and panics about killer bees for windows of time. We've heard about the death of bees around the world. So we've heard a lot of, those tend to be the stories that I think make it to the general population. So so just, I think the oldest of those, maybe, is, is the death of bees, large scale death of bees, is that related to... Do you have a sense of what that's related to, or could share? Well, they call it colony collapse disorder, and it's it's culmination of everything. It's a combination of loss of habitat, of pesticides and herbicides, of pollution of what, what's just being put in the environment. It, they found it. It actually affects the gut of the bee, so it makes them more prone to disease and to to death just because they're not as healthy, because of all these different situations and also being moved around, bees don't really like being moved around. So it, it really varies according to what kind of beekeeper you are and how many hives you have. I think, yeah, It sounds like that's a big business in California, especially, for example, is moving hives relocation as Yeah, the whole state, the whole United States, rather. I know needed? Do we have killer bees? someone who's a very he has, like, 8000 hives. He lives in New York State, and he there they go all around the United States, including California, and come back to New York state. So what we do in Hawaii is totally different, because we don't have that. We have a little bit of pollination. There's some mac nut growers that understand the importance of pollination on their crops, things like that. But we don't have the large scale agriculture that you find on the mainland. We do not have killer bees. Knock on wood. Yeah, a lot of it, when you see it in the news is used to politicize different issues. You know, these people are bringing over Africanized bee genes somehow. Or, you know, I think there are, there's politics, certainly within bee keeping. I know there's some laws or statutes on the Big Island of Hawaii for example, that people are talking about trying to change related bees. Do you want to talk to any of Um, so right now, there's, it's Bill 144, and it's, it's just a that? zoning law. Some people or bill for this count.. the County of Hawaii, and people are getting very confused and they think it's, you know, they want to put all these other things in the bill, but it's just changing zoning, that's it. And basically bees are considered the same as some kind of different types of livestock, including pigs. So there's 1000 foot from any main road law right now on them as well as 75 feet from a property line. But if you have bees, you know that they like to cruise around 15 or 20 feet off the ground. So as soon as they come out of their high they come up, and they prefer to actually forage in trees that are booming than plants down below. So right now we're trying to change that law or that county rule to no zoning. So right now you have to have agricultural land. Most beekeepers do not, I'd say. You have to be 1000 feet, well, you're supposed to be 1000 feet from a main road, which could be a dirt road. And I think the majority of beekeepers cannot follow that rule, just because of the way development on the Big Island works. I know someone with three acres, and then they have a spaghetti lot, and they can't even follow this only five foot away from a boundary line rule, but they have three acres, and bees are really important for pollination of all kinds of things and all this talk of self sustainability on the Big Island, we need pollinators to do that to create more food. So if we want to create more food we have to support the pollinators. So yeah, and we're just, we're just basically updating standards that are pretty, pretty typical of the rest of the United States. There's bee associations that are in San Francisco and city, and people keep bees all kinds of places on top of the apartment buildings. I met someone that actually has their bees in their apartment in New York City, and they find those bees are often times healthier because the the variety of different trees and plants that are found in the parks, the different parks and the botanical gardens that you can't find anywhere else, all, almost all year round. So they're actually healthier bees. A lot of their bees in the farmlands are maybe able to collect from only a dozen different varieties of plants and trees, and they bloom at certain times of the year, and then there's no blossoms, so they need that forage. Do you think that there need to be more beekeepers in Hawaii? I don't necessarily think there needs to be more beekeepers, but becoming more aware of honeybees, I think, is really important. That's not part of school curriculum usually. So a lot of people grow up with hollywoodization of beekeeping, like the movie "The Beekeeper," I couldn't even finish watching the first 20 minutes, because he goes in and he's removing a beehive, but actually it's a wasp nest, and he's wearing like a fencing jacket to remove the bees. And I'm just, so there's.. So, if you were to create a curriculum addition for school systems, what what would be on it? Just general information of what honey bees do and what they're important for, and the life cycle. I think the life cycle is really important. People don't really understand insects. I think, including myself, before I started beekeeping, I didn't, it's just like, cool, there there's an insect, but there's definitely a whole life cycle that goes on and different situations that make them healthier, not as healthy, and just as a landowner or as a voter, understanding what's being sprayed in the environment, or who's supporting what and why, it's important to know about those things. I think these are important. Do you think there is an aspect of beekeeping that is helpful for for your mental health, or for mental health in general, for beekeepers? Well, it's interesting when I see, when I see people go in the hive, anything they're thinking about, they suddenly drop, and they have to, they have to be present in the hive, you can't be thinking about, "Oh, I gotta go pay my taxes, I gotta go pick up the kids," or whatever it is. You have to kind of put that to the side when you're in the hive. So it's, I'd say, it's an active meditation, in a way, you can't think about anything else. And we do Hoʻola Farms come with a group once a year, and yes, and that's very, very beneficial for the for the veterans that are in the group, and they're also supporting them in their agricultural pursuits, but it's all about going back to mental health and being full and happy. So so if I, if I'm not keeping bees are there ways that I can help with the aspects related to beekeeping, and if it's important? I'd say, buy. Support support your local beekeeper. So buy local honey from your beekeeper, instead of going to Costco and buying the honey from Brazil. I just saw that the other day. How do they have this honey? But you know, you get three bears of honey for $15 and a local beekeeper will sell you the one bear for $15 so people want a good deal, but if we're going to support local agriculture, we have to start with where we're buying things. So I think that's a main one. And then also being aware of how and where pesticides and herbicides are being sprayed in the County, I think that's a big one. We still have not banned 20 different pesticides and herbicides that really are not needed that have been banned on Kauai. I see a "No Spray" sign at your gate, with a bee on it. Yeah. So you have to, in the County of Hawaii, you have to fill out a form online, which is really hard to find. And then you also are required to put out a "no spray" sign, even if you fill out the form. And I think on this street, there's enough people that I've filled out that form that we don't even, I don't even see any spraying lately, which is great. It used to be really bad For the sake of the bees, should, do you feel like we should all fill out those forms? I think so. Yeah. I mean, it's 10 feet. On my property. It's a little harder, it goes down like that. There's no flat area really, yes, You just take care of that yourself? Yes, yes. And sometimes the County, well, no, the County Some additional benefits. comes along with their their mower, and it can't kind of fit We then spent some time looking into the hives on Susan's because it is so steep right there. So I just come along with a weed wacker every couple months, cut it back, and then all all those weeds are really great forage for the bees. So property. So here we are at the hive. What should we what should we be that's the other reason. thinking about as we approach the hive? You're letting them know you're here. So I tapped, I smoked the front a little bit, just to let them know I'm coming. And so I'm always, I'm always just aware of what I'm looking at. Like, it's been rainy a lot, so I'm noticing the edges are a little bit damp. And I may or may not replace this box if it's if it's too damp. I've been replacing a lot of boxes lately because it's been so rainy. You were mentioning pests are a big problem, mites in particular? Yes, varroa mites, they're huge. They carry diseases, and they also latch on to the underside of bees, and they shorten the bees lifespan, basically. How do you treat for those? There's a lot of different treatments on the market. I use Apivar, which are basically just small plastic strips that are infused with Amitraz and then you leave them on for for about 40 days, and it kills most of the mites, knocks them back, and then that's it. And then your your populations start taking off when your bees are healthy. Is there any debate about spraying or using those chemicals with bees There is, and that's why there's lots of different options. I like Amitraz. It's not considered organic, but it's easy on the bees. It is, it's stable in all different types of conditions. So some some of these, I'm just checking to see what's going on in this frame. Some of these treatments are considered organic, but they aren't as effective, and they're also heat, they're not stable in different types of heat. So in Hawaii, we can, you know, go up into the 80s, and some of the treatments will actually kill your bees if, if it goes up to 80 degrees with the treatment on, and Apivar bar doesn't do that. It's really depressing to watch your bees die. So even even if you think you're doing good for your bees, that's why I choose that treatment. But there's other treatments on the market. There's oxalic acid, which is nice to keep levels at at a constant but it doesn't necessarily knock all your pests back. So sometimes people will use the Apivar or Amitraz and then use oxalic acid as kind of maintenance throughout the year. And I'm always looking for the queen. The last time I was in here, the Queen looked a little she looked a little rough, and I'm not sure if it's because of the robber bees. Lately, I've been having problem with other bees going in and trying to rob while I have the hives open, and it's very annoying. Because they'll go in and try to kill the queen while they're robbing and I'm not seeing any eggs on this frame, but I'm I'm seeing lots of catch brood, which is nice. So I really like this hive because they're very quiet on the frame, generally speaking. I mean, there's a few flying around, but they're not upset that I'm in the hive with them. When... you look very unafraid. So are there any reasons to be afraid? When should one be afraid when they they are approaching bees or beehives? Well, my bees, in general, I try to keep hives that are are pretty calm. There are some swarms that I'll bring home, and they'll have the wild genetics in them. And those are the those are the hives I don't take new students into but I'm not afraid of them. I understand what they're trying to do. They're trying to keep a nice, healthy colony. See what's happening. And, yeah, this is what I was afraid of. Um, so, yeah, something happened with that queen. So on this side, see all the peanuts? Yeah, so they're, they're replacing their queen, which is fine. I liked, I liked her. It's too bad that that happened. They're staging a coup. Well, I think she, she perished. She did. Yeah, she looked a little rough when I put her back in. I think, I think that's kind of one of the many interesting things about bees and how they not only can they pick the the gender of the bee that's born, but they, when they see a queen needs to be replaced, or it's time, yeah, they create their own. Yes, exactly, yep. And then there's, oh, there's a bunch of bunch of cells on this frame too. So when I'm thinking as I'm going through here is I have a hive that is queenless, and I think I'll take one of these frames and introduce it to them so they can hatch those eggs or hatch those queen cells, like their their own. One of the benefits to having many hives? Yes, definitely, that's why I always recommend people get at least two or three hives when they first start. Yeah, there aren't any eggs or anything. That's too bad. That's why you inspect them. Yeah, exactly. Then also, when there's, a this is called a brood break. So basically - there's a hive beetle - when there's a brood break going on, that's also a chance for for them to get rid of a bunch of mites. Because there's no they the mites need new brood to survive. That's part of the life cycle of the mite. And when they don't have that brood then, then they start to die off, where they can't reproduce anymore. So that's also going on. That's the benefit of not having a queen for a moment. Okay, well, I think I'm gonna wrap up here. Thank you so much. I'll leave you to finishing your work with your bees. Okay and I appreciate all your time. Thank you. Thanks so much. You're welcome Any kind of words of wisdom, advice, thoughts you would want to share with Hawaii ag producers? We don't all have to be beekeepers. And if you are interested in beekeeping, I encourage you to take some kind of course or class - not a two hour class, something longer - to really understand how to keep bees and what's involved, before investing hundreds of dollars in equipment and bees, and realize, weighing out how much time you actually have for them. It's like being a pet is, times 10 maybe, yes. Don't do it And no one, most people cannot come over and just get your casually. bees. If you're off Island or something, because you have a swarm, you have to... You can't get a a bee walker Right. Exactly! Yeah. Do your neighbors give you any trouble related to the bees, or do you feel like they understand or did you have to educate them? No, most of my neighbors are pretty far apart, and what I hear mostly is, "Oh, I see your bees on my my trees all the time." And they like that, because in this area, it's a agricultural area. I do have another I have a few neighbors that host commercial beekeepers, so they have like, 40 to 80 hives sitting on their property, and then they get tax write offs, although that sounds like it might change, and I know what's happening with that. Yeah, speaking of politics or County, new zoning laws are happening here on the island in the next couple of years. Yes, yes, And because there were some significant changes to the political landscape since Susan and I first met, I caught up with Susan in April of 2025 to review some of those changes. I've been in the process of editing your podcast, and I realize when we spoke last a lot of what we talked about was related to zoning laws and some of the setback requirements for bees that was in process in legislation in Hawaii, and what that impact might be if it weren't, were weren't passed. So now this is a number of months later, and that law has passed. And I think it was as you had hoped it passed, in ways that you'd hoped it had passed. It used to, the law, the County law used to say, if you had bees, it had to be 1000 feet from any main road, and that could include a dirt road, which really was very difficult, unless you had a large track of land. So for example, I have five acres, and it was really hard to say my bees were 1000 feet from any main road, even on five acres. So now it's 25 feet from any main road, which I think is great. And also you don't have to have agricultural land. So it's open to any type of property on the Big Island, and it's probably one of the, if you look at the other Counties, it's the most progressive in Hawaii, which I'm really happy about. And then the only, the only restrictions that they have is if you have a half an acre or less, you can only have 15 hives, which is a lot for a half an acre. But they did that because there's a lot of properties, especially in the southern part of the island, that they'll have a half acre lot and and then no one else will be around them. So it it makes sense for them if they're especially if they're next to, you know, national park land or or an uninhabited area. So that's the only restriction other than 25 feet from a property property line, or 15 feet if you have a six foot barrier. So that makes the bees go up and over. So that's the update. That's great to hear that that passed and and it sounds like all and all you wanted, and more maybe. And it's to the credit of the Council members right now. So they are doing a really great job. I'd say, pretty much all of the Council members that I've been seeing when I go to the meetings, they really care about the County, and they're really trying to make change for the good. Changes that this, this new law, this County law has created, is now more people are interested in beekeeping, for sure, because now they know they can do it legally. So that's the big change, and also because of the new property tax laws that are going into effect, it's kind of a big deal for for people that that want to get ag status on their property, but don't necessarily want a cow or, you know, chickens or are going to be making micro-greens or something like that, and they're looking for something that they can interact with and then have on their property. Right now, I feel like that is kind of in flux as to how many hives per acre would be required, and I don't think that's really been pinpointed yet by the County. I think the more that they learn in June when I do a training with some of their staff, that'll change. Yeah, and just just to touch on that, a little a little bit more. So Hawaii County has changed all the Ag zoning and that, I think it takes, takes effect next year, and people have this window where they can submit their applications for to renew their ag zoning or get their ag zoning by, I think it's the end of September of 2025 right? And so it's got a lot of people concerned in ag because there's generations upon generations of people that have had ag zoning, and it's just always been there. And it really reduces the property taxes because they have the ag land and ag zoning. And now it's a bit concerning for people that, now because the laws are a little fuzzy, and, as you said, a little bit in flux. It seems like there's been some changes and some more changes, and there's new categories now, and it's certainly become much more complex for folks that that want to have ag zoning on the Big Island. So we hope, Seeds of Wellbeing hopes to do a podcast on that topic and drill down a little bit more with the County, but, but that's you. Sounds like you're seeing an impact on on beekeeping? Um, yeah, definitely. But I also, when I speak with people about beekeeping, it's really important for them to know that they need to know they need to have some kind of training, um, before they get into beekeeping, because the majority of people that just tried it by themselves, they fail, and they lose hundreds of dollars in equipment and bees, and also it causes problems with their neighbors, because their bees are swarming and then so there's a lot more work to it than people realize, I think. But that being said, you know, there there are, like my neighbor who says he has an orchard, and his property is not an orchard, it's all grass. I think there are reasons for for the changes, Yeah, and I think it's to crack down on the folks that have, have had ag zoning and have mansions and grass and a goat, right? And I think people, I think everyone, wants it to be fair and legitimate, I think, but it's, but it's a little disconcerting, right? If you've, if you've never had to go through the process and you've had your ag zoning, and you feel like you've been doing the right thing, but now it's like, what category do I fit in? But people, but you think any it sounds like you're doing a training in June of this year for the County, so that they kind of understand what to look for. Yes Speaking of government and government potentially causing drama and upheaval in agriculture. We're a few months, I think 90 days, maybe or less, into President Trump's second term, and it's been a bit chaotic. A lot of changes, a lot of quick changes, a lot of new departments being created and old departments being disbanded. So I think everyone's a bit nervous I think in ag, and especially if funding, and grant funding has been a key source of revenue for a lot of people, I think they're most of the Ag programs I can think of need and benefit or potentially even require government funding in order to exist and continue. And the government has frozen most, or if not all, of those funds, and in some cases, with has have withdrawn those funds. So DOGE is, you know, Department of Government Efficiency, which is currently headed by Elon Musk, who has been appointed to do that, is kind of going in and and freezing things and and dismantling things. So I mean, with all, I'll call it chaos. With all the chaos going on, what do you see as the impact to the ag community in the ways that you touch it? Well, I'm on, I'm on a Board, a national beekeeping board, and just from my own perspective - I'm not representing them at all- is we're we're also, unfortunately, having 70 to 80% colony loss on the mainland, not in Hawaii. And that is going to impact our food production for the next few years, for the foreseeable future. And a lot of these beekeepers were just hanging on as it is because the costs are so high compared to what they actually make. So once you just you lose most of your bees or pretty much all of your your business, and in one fell swoop, in one month, then it's really hard to get back on your feet. And right now, all those safeguards for farmers have been taken away. And I hear people saying, "Oh, well, you know, we got to get the government to do something." But the fact is they are dismantling the safeguards that we have in place for these situations. So that's a huge issue. That's a food security issue, and like on the uppermost level, and all they're talking about is creating more income or more revenue for the United States and bringing bringing jobs back here, but they're actually cutting all these jobs. All these farmers are losing their shirts because they're not they're not able to export like they used to also. And then on top of it, when we have emergencies like we're having right now, with a colony collapse disorder, we don't have, have scientists looking into why it's happening and then to stop it. So we're in kind of free fall with beekeeping in the United States right now. With no net, and the net being pulled away, right? Yeah. So it's probably the worst time for colony collapse. Has there been colony collapse for a while or on and off over the years. It's on and off, but 20 years ago was the other acute kind of situation. And I have no idea why this this event is happening. I mean, pretty much, if you look at all the different pressures that we put on bees in general, that that probably will be your answer. But they're still doing research as to why this is happening across the United States. We thank Susan for sharing her manao and details about bees and related legislation and training in Hawaii with a large percentage of our food reliant upon pollinators, like bees for our food production, the steady and sometimes dramatic decline in bee populations across the world, combined with the US government freezing and cutting funds related to beekeeping and bee health, this is a timely topic. What can you do? Right is where we all feel a little concerned or helpless, unless we feel like there's something we can do. So it seems like getting your voice heard to your legislators. I know there's demonstrations that are happening. So I think getting involved is it's probably more important now than ever. Which brings me to World Bee Day, which is May 17, and it'll be the third annual World Bee Day. It's an event. It's World Bee Day Hawaii. So it's an event based on the UN proclamation of May 20th being the International Day for pollinators, because pollinators are so important to our food systems and sustainability. And what I'm trying to do with World Bee Day is create a community, a networking opportunity. Also, I'm bringing in people from the mainland, from ABF and the University of Colorado to teach about, we're doing a microscopy session where we're actually looking at different parts of the bee to understand honey bees better, and then also learning how to market products better in a farmers market, and also to upscale your apiary. Okay, and that's inter... it's Hawaii Island, so, but it's being held on the Big Island of Hawaii in Hilo, is that correct? Yes Are folks from all the islands invited? Yes, anybody? Great, anybody is invited? Anybody from anywhere? Yes, okay, and it's free. There's mead making sessions. There's vendors from different apiaries there, there's nonprofits, there's a honey tasting. There's free hands on kind of projects for anybody, making bee hats, and making rolled candles, and that kind of thing. Yeah, It's fun for everyone, yes, whether you've ever been near a bee or not. And there's an after mead party 4:00 to 5:30 That sounds fun, so sounds like a couple of key points. One is there's laws changing locally in Hawaii, and so pay attention to that, and don't jump into beekeeping without training, because it can get expensive, and you could anger your neighbors and and maybe worse. You could spend a lot of money and then lose it all just because you're not understanding how to keep bees, or even you're not sure if you even want to actually do it. I think people have an idea of what it will be like, and then they actually do it. And they're like, "Hmm, maybe not." Yes, as we can, as we can see in some of the videos, you get a better sense of it, I think of what's really involved, the video I took at your farm. And last but not least is bee collapse on the mainland, drama in politics and funding as a result. And get political and try to try to help save the The intention of these podcast series is to create a safe space bees. for a respectful and inclusive dialog with people from across a broad and diverse spectrum involved in growing and making accessible the food we share together. A diversity of voices, perspectives and experiences can serve to deepen mutual understanding, to spark creative problem solving, and provide insight into the complexities of our agriculture system. If you or listeners have experiences with Hawaii agriculture ecosystem, from indigenous methods, permaculture, small holder farmers, to large including multinational agricultural industrial companies, and everywhere in between, and you would like to share your story. Please contact us. We welcome your voices and perspectives.