Honeybee populations are declining and this is a dangerous trend that we must do something about. I have begun using my passion for beekeeping to help educate new beekeepers. I discovered that I am so passionate about beekeeping, that my passion leaks out all over everyone I come into contact with. I also have a particular interest in the science, documentation in writing, still photography and video. My talents have dovetailed very well with my beekeeping. Here is an example of my latest challenge to others involving beekeeping, that will hopefully end up helping honeybees stop their decline. After all, at least one third of our diet is because of a honeybee.

I love beekeeping! In fact, I felt a little strange when I first got the urge to keep bees because not many people besides me seemed interested in beekeeping. I guess you could say it reminded me a little of a county song I had heard before and I will just say I was a beekeeper when beekeeping wasn't cool. I just heard a recent popular song with the lyrics, "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" Of course being the obsessed beekeeper that I am, I changed the words to "Don't you wish your hobby was hot like mine?"

It is true, beekeeping is hot at the moment. It seems everything with a bee theme is instantly hot. Don't believe me? Just ask anyone if they have heard or read anything about bees in the last week and I bet you almost all of them have. There is currently a keen awareness and interest in our beloved ladies. This really dawned on me in a big way tonight when I saw a movie advertised from Jerry Seinfeld, one of my favorites, called "Bee Movie". Of course there is nothing funny or light about the plight of our bees, but all the attention and interest is great. We can benefit from a bit of fad, if we will help direct the interested people to the real bees when the fad grabs their interest.

I guess you could say beekeeping is riding a wave at the moment. It is an exciting time to be in beekeeping, partially because the stakes are so high. As Winston Churchill said during the darkest days of World War II, "This will be our finest hour". I believe how we react to the honeybee crisis can become our finest hour. When the stakes are high, the risks we take to experiment, and innovate are magnified in our successes. I am happy so many people are interested in becoming hobbyist beekeepers because the more minds that are studying and experimenting, the more great discoveries we will

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