An interesting article in the New York Times today describes a couple of Connecticut beekeepers (father and son) who have traveled around the world, teaching people how to become beekeepers. Andrew Cote and his father Norm are passionate about bees and beekeeping and rightly say that introducing beekeeping in certain areas of the world can help the local populations stave off starvation.
Andrew, who has about 200 hives and harvests honey by the ton, even went to Iraq in 2005 and help start colonies in several areas. What he said about beekeeping in Iraq is particularly interesting.
Before the 1991 Gulf War, there were an estimated half a million hives in Iraq. After all those oil field fires and smoke, and this current war, there are about 20,000. Mobility is extremely limited, and beekeepers can’t get colonies to the citrus groves where they’re needed, or to the lush areas in Kurdistan.
Read the entire article:
Gerri Hirshey, Sharing a Taste of Honey, on an International Scale, New York Times, Nov. 28, 2008.
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