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September 1987 changed everything. A parasite the size of a pinhead transformed beekeeping from a part-time endeavor into a chemical management operation where treating for mites became more important than managing for honey.

The workers vanished overnight in 2006, leaving queens and honey behind. What researchers found wasn't a single cause but six different murder weapons, and the colony had been sick for years.

Buckwheat honey tastes like molasses. Orange blossom carries citrus notes. Tupelo never crystallizes. The nectar source matters, but so does soil composition, rainfall timing, temperature during bloom, and whether bees worked the flowers at dawn or noon. Honey isn't just honey.

The American bumblebee dropped 90% in two decades. The rusty-patched lost 96% of its range. Four species that once dominated North America now teeter near extinction, and the reasons reveal why some pollinators crash while others persist.

Tomatoes require something honeybees physically cannot do. The pollination mechanics reveal why native bees outperform managed honeybees on crops we assumed needed those white boxes in the orchard.

Maryland spring arrives a month earlier than it did in 1970. Apple bloom advanced 6.7 days per degree of warming. Wild bees emerge 6.5 days earlier for every 1°C rise. The calendar that governed beekeeping for generations no longer matches what's happening in the hives.