“Queen of the Sun” Documentary Explores The Crisis Of Colony Collapse Disorder In Bee Populations

Warm Springs, Va – Honey bees are disappearing. What is happening in our environment that is contributing to the loss of honey bees? What are the bees telling us? A new critically acclaimed documentary called “Queen of the Sun” explores the crisis of honey bee loss. The Virginia Hot Springs Preservation Trust is bringing the film to Bath County. Mary Hodges is the Executive Director of the Trust.

“I want to encourage people to come to this film even if you aren’t a bee keeper” says Hodges. “The ramifications of losing the bees is great and far beyond just losing the bees; it will affect us in many, many ways [and] our world won’t be the same.”

The unusual loss of large numbers of bees was first reported about five years ago. It’s been named Colony Collapse Disorder.

“Across the country and all over the world, there has been a sudden disappearance of the bees” says Hodges. “There are lots of different explanations for this, but primarily most people think and attribute it to the way we are abusing our environment. Using unnecessary pesticides and chemicals that are having a great effect on the population of the bees and for a lot of unexplained reasons, bees are disappearing.”

A free showing of “Queen of the Sun” is Thursday evening June 16 at 7 in Trimble Hall at the Old Dairy in Warm Springs.

“We are lucky to have one of the featured bee keepers in the film appear with us at the Dairy for that evening” she says. “His name is Gunter Hawk and he and his wife Vivian run a honeybee sanctuary in Floyd County. We are very, very fortunate to have him her and he’ll be available for questions after the film.”

According to the US Department of Agriculture, in our diets about one mouthful in three benefits from honey bee pollination.

“Without the bees, just imagine, we wouldn’t have any of our fruit trees, apples, peaches, pears, almonds; our diet would change dramatically” says Hodges. “It’s gotten so bad in countries like China that they are going out in fields, thousands up thousands of acres, and they are hand pollinating with paint brushes fruit trees because there are no bees to get that job done.”

For more information on the showing of “Queen of The Sun” contact Mary Hodges at the Virginia Hot Springs Preservation Trust at 540-839-2407.