I have a dream.

No, my name is not Martin Luther King, Jr. and my dream has nothing to do with civil rights. But my dream does have to do with a similarly complex issue and has a future just as difficult.

Let me tell you about my dream.  It is a dream deeply rooted in the beekeeping dream. I have a dream that one day every rural and urban family would have several beehives.  I have a dream that every beekeeper would have honey crops that would supply his family’s sweetener needs with some surplus to sell.  I have a dream that a dead-out would be a rare occurrence and that every spring would see robust colonies that take good management to keep from swarming.  I have a dream that one day we could say we are “free at last” from all the things that keep the beekeeping hobby and industry depressed.

“Well,” you might say, “that’s a nice dream, but a‘pie in the sky’”.  I know.  That dream was a reality about 75 years ago.  That was pre-varroa, pre-noenicitinoid, pre-monoculture, pre-nonagrarian families. The day of every farming family (and most families were farming families) supering a few hives back on a fence row at the edge of the 40 acre and walking away from them till honey harvest, is over.  The day when American Foulbrood was the most feared problem is gone.  The day when you could rely on the fall flow of goldenrod and aster to supply enough stores for the winter, and when you could plan on at least 90% of the hives to be alive in the spring is history.  Over. Gone. History. Forever.

Or is it?

I am sure that the halcyon beekeeping days of the 40’s and 50’s can never be returned with all its idyllic “good-old-days”, golden-age sense.  I am sure there is much to discourage the most interested wannabe. And I am sure that there is plenty to decry the current conditions.

We could cry or we could do something.

My dream cannot be realized, but maybe, just maybe, there are parts of it that can be salvaged.  That is what this 2025 series of posts is dedicated to.  In 2024 we ran a series dedicated to survival and survival will be a part of this year’s series as well. But we want to look at a more complete picture with the purpose of encouraging dedicated, engaged, and enduring commitment that might, just might, help make some of my dream a reality.  

And, who knows what might be in 75 years.

– Jonathan Showalter, President of Beeline of Michigan

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