student work TheKeepingofBees

The Keeping of Bees
Photographed, Recorded & Produced by Briget Ganske // Spring 09

Portland, Maine


Honeybees pollinate $15 billion dollars worth in crops and effect one-third of all the food we consume in the U.S. During the winter of 2006, beekeepers from all over the country began to report unusually high deaths in their hives, some losing as many as 90 percent of their bees. The causes of the phenomenon, which scientists have termed "Colony Collapse Disorder," remain unknown. Erin Forbes, one of four Master Beekeepers in Maine, believes that in order to sustain our ecosystem, people need to pay more attention to bees, for instance "provide habitat for bees by planting flowers. And they can become beekeepers!"