Re: Bee Pollen Returns (Is This True)

well--I don't find your remorse and decision to abstain extreme Lee, I think it's evidence of the eye of the heart.

and yes, It IS true, killing is so much a part of living, but one can at least decide to not knowingly kill -- this is an act of respect for all others, and the inherent preciousness of creation, recognizing that we are all One, ultimately.

From googling "how is bee pollen collected?"

"Bee pollen is the pollen collected by bees as they gather nectar from flowers for making honey. Like honey, bee pollen is used as a food by the hive. The pollen granules are stored in pollen sacs on the bees' hind legs. Beekeepers who wish to collect bee pollen place a screen over the hive with openings just large enough for the bees to pass through. As the bees enter the hive, the screen compresses their pollen sacs, squeezing the pollen from them. The beekeepers can then collect the pollen from the screen."

The comfortable notion of the pollen balls as being something that just sticks to the legs and needs to be (only) brushed off, would seem to be a little facile.



I find the idea of taking the food of other creatures makes *me* feel less and less
*okay*...

just for example, thinking of the news of 15,000 or so cows that have died recently in California, from the heat, while reading that they "produce" less milk in the heat, (like a complaint!) gives me a bit of a queasy feeling about humans' regard
for the life forms of others...


The pollen, like the honey, is food for the hive. I wonder, how much do we feel entitled to, in order to attempt to physically *perfect* these transient vessels?


I find it wonderful enough that the bees pollinate flowers and doing so give us so much !


And very sad, the state of bees these days. There are fewer and fewer;partly due to the agribusiness of 'farming' them, they are being decimated by a kind of mite.

I may well be somewhat more enamoured of bees than your average person--I have been writing a book based on the life of a bee. But what person doesn't love them, at heart?