Join in for the sixth annual Pollinator Field Day 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center in Mills River.

Spend time with beekeepers during the next meeting of the Smoky Mountain Beekeepers Association at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14, at the Swain County Business Education Center in Bryson City.

Visit a hub of nature exploration and interactive programs focused on pollinators 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 24, at Highlands Nature Center, in honor of National Pollinator Week.

By Jonathan Austin • Contributing writer | A recently documented bee species has been identified living in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Will Kuhn, director of science and research at Discover Life in America, said the bee, Epeolus inornatus, was found during two observations off Baskins Creek Trail, located just outside Gatlinburg.

For Ash Rovecamp, keeping honeybees has never been about honey.

“I don’t really consider myself a beekeeper,” he said. “I’m a bee feeder. I hardly even go into my hives, have hardly even gotten honey for myself.”

Students in the HIGHTS program, which works with vulnerable youth and their families in Western North Carolina, learn about more than honey when they tend beehives through HIGHTS’ Bee Well program, which believes that bees are good tools for working with youth.

Brannen Basham spends more time puttering around the yard than the average homeowner, but the result is not what most people would picture when asked to envision a well-cared-for lawn. 

In the lull between summer’s peak and fall’s color arrival, things are on the quiet side at the Highlands Biological Station as the gardens make their transition from summer blooms to autumn vibrancy. But for those who know where to look, a world of change and color waits ripe for discovery.

That’s the world of pollinators — the army of butterflies, bees, moths, flies and wasps whose diet of nectar keeps flowers flowering.

Beekeepers in Western North Carolina were hit especially hard this winter by a mysterious rash of bee disappearances. 

Amateur Haywood County beekeeper Andy Bailey said he lost three of his four colonies during the winter. His final hive lasted until the spring but then those bees disappeared. 

What puzzles Bailey is that his hives weren’t filled with the corpses of the thousands of bees, which would seem likely in the case of a massive die-off. Instead, the bees abandoned their homes — honey and all.

The wonderful thing about keeping bees is there are always surprises. Just when you think you’ve learned what there is to know in one area of beekeeping or another the bees do something entirely unexpected and delightful.

I was reminded of this a few days back when we pulled off the spring honey for processing. We were later than usual with this task — the bees are now well into making the summer’s sourwood honey — but other duties had intervened until suddenly and inexplicably it was July.