A song of the bees

Be prepared for a feel-good moment. I first met Mark Luterra and his partner, Liz, two years ago in Corvallis, Oregon. At the time, Mark took me through his apiary and prepared a list of beekeepers I should meet on my visit to the Willamette Valley. I could see Mark was intelligent and passionate about his work, but I was clueless about his hidden talents until this morning when I played this video.

Mark writes:

“We finally got around to finishing this project. It started as a song in February 2012, hoping that our first two beehives would make it through the winter (they didn’t…). The music video idea came in April 2013, and I did most of the video editing in the Denver airport. Then we moved, and the bees moved, and the project was mostly forgotten until now.”

I listened to his song four or fives times this morning and have been humming ever since. The lyrics are printed below, and if you would like to know more about Mark, he writes a blog called Musings from Mark that centers around nature, sustainability, energy, agriculture, and mead.

I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did. Let me know what you think!

Rusty
HoneyBeeSuite

A Song of the Bees

by Markael Luterra
Published on Jan 2, 2015

Lyrics:

Sing a song of the bees
Thousands as one
Led by a queen

Bees by the thousands they are workin together
Bringin nectar and pollen whatever the weather
Gotta keep the queen fed layin two eggs a minute
For the next generation, the sky’s the limit

Coevolution we see
Flowers and bees
Nectar for fertile seeds

We pop off the top to inspect the brood
White larvae and eggs mean that things are all good
We try to avoid the end with the stinger
But every now and then we still get stung on the finger
Stung on the finger!

Put some ice on that sting
Cool down the burn
Easing the suffering

Got varroa and nosema and now tracheal mites
Its a mess with all these pests we might just give up the fight
But no disease will kill my bees cause I take care of my hives
And through the winter into April they will still be alive
Still be alive
My bees are alive!

(Piano interlude)

In the summer they’ll be haulin in the honey like a beast
And then in August we’ll collect it and we’ll have a great feast
With lots of mead and pie and honeycomb and cookies too
And we’ll still have enough to give honey to you
Honey to you

(Flute interlude)

Sing a song of the bees
Thousands as one
Led by a queen
Coevolution we see
Flowers and bees
Nectar for fertile seeds.