The Wisdom of Bees with Melissa Cronshaw

When Melissa was five, she shared all she learned from taking care of her own bee hive with her fellow, first-grade classmates. Now, Melissa tends to hundreds of hives across Santa Barbara county and leads groundbreaking educational programming on the essential role bees play in ecological health. Stacy sits down with Melissa this week to think critically about colonies: how they function, what they can (and can’t do) to help your crop, and the singular importance of understanding hives in a broader environmental context. Melissa’s philosophy runs against typical, big-agro policy in her refusal to use chemicals to respond to difficulties with her hives. As she illustrates in this episode, nature finds a way of creating solutions - we just have to start paying closer attention. Tune in to learn about the complex social lives of honey bees, the dangers of terminating weeds in your backyard, and all the problems with the movement to “Save the Bees.”Connect with Melissa online:Website: https://melissasbees.orgInstagram: @melissasbeees Articles mentioned during the episode: ‘Honeybees are voracious’: is it time to put the brakes on the boom in beekeeping?"The Beekeepers who don’t want you to buy more bees""Is Beekeeping Wrong?"California Field Guides: California Bees and Blooms: A Guide for Gardeners and NaturalistsCommon Bees in California GardensCommon Plants to Attract California Native Bees