LoudounNow LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 1, No. 43 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
Back to school in photos
20
[ Sept. 1–7, 2016 ]
Douglas Graham/Loudoun Now
Beekeeper Matt Gaillardetz tends his bee colonies in Lovettsville. He is among local bee hobbyists who have seen some success in preventing bee colony loses.
Loudouners Join Fight for the Honey Bee BY MARGARET MORTON
W
ho doesn’t love honey? The word has even become a term of endearment for those we love. Mankind has been producing the sticky sweet stuff and working with its products for almost 9,000 years, as evidenced in drawings of bees on prehistoric rock cave walls and in Egyptian Pharaonic murals. In the medieval period, abbeys and monasteries were
beekeeping centers. Beeswax was prized for candles and fermented honey was used to make alcoholic mead. But it was not until the 18th century that Europeans began to make scientific study of bee colonies and understand their complex structures and civilizations. In the 19th century, American Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth developed his patented movable honeycomb hive—and modern beekeeping evolved. But in recent years, pollinators, including the honey bee, have come under increasing stress from a variety of factors, including overuse of pesticides, loss of foraging
Loudoun’s Youngest Commuters How Long is Too Long on a School Bus? BY DANIELLE NADLER Like most western Loudoun kids, Erin Calley is used to long school bus rides. Last year, she rode the bus for 30
minutes in the morning, from her home near Middleburg to Blue Ridge Middle School in Purcellville, and for 90 minutes in the afternoon. “Usually, I try to get a little homework done before the roads get too windy,”
habitat, Varroa destructor mites and the rise of colony collapse disorder. Those pollinators are essential to the world’s food supply. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion in added crop value, particularly for specialty crops such as almonds and other nuts, berries, fruits, and vegetables. The USDA warns that if research cannot solve colony collapse disorder, beekeepers will be unable to
she said of her afternoon rides. Then she sleeps or listens to books on tape until the bus stops at the end of her driveway at 5 p.m. This school year, she’ll be on the bus 30 minutes longer each day, with an earlier pickup time of 7:20 a.m. “That will mean 2 hours and 50 minutes that a 12-year-old is spending on a bus every day,” her mother Susana Calley said.
LOUDOUN BEES >> 47 “When we saw that we were devastated.” Many families who live along some of the county’s most scenic roadways woke up for the first day of school Monday to find they had even longer bus rides ahead of them than in years past. Some students are scheduled to be on a bus for three hours a day. Calley spoke with a dozen or more LONG RIDE >> 46
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