Farmers in southern Mexico rescue bees as drought grips region

May 19, 2024 3:00 AM
By Reuters



SANTA ANA ZEGACHE, MEXICO — Beekeepers Alfredo Lopez Espiritu and Eloy Perez Garcia work to relocate and save wild bee hives, protecting them from the lack of flowering caused by drought and attacks by people who consider them aggressive, in San Lorenzo Cacaotepec, Mexico, May 4, 2024.

Mexican farmer Floriberto Matias carefully picks up a honeycomb teeming with bees, as he and fellow activists in southern Mexico carry the delicate structures to a nearby apiary for the buzzing creatures.

In the town of Santa Ana Zegache, in the state of Oaxaca, Matias and other farmers are worried that an ongoing drought and the resulting loss of local flora could hurt the local bee population.

Such a turn would threaten the farmers themselves, said beekeeper Eloy Perez, who is part of the town's rescue efforts.



The volunteer farmer Bernardino Blas works to relocate and save wild bee hives, protecting them from the lack of flowering caused by drought and attacks by people who consider them aggressive, in Santa Ana Zegache, Mexico April 30, 2024.

"Without the work of pollination, which is what bees do, there would be no type of food production, from the smallest grass to the gigantic watermelons," he said.

More:
https://www.voanews.com/a/hold-for-wknd-farmers-in-southern-mexico-rescue-bees-as-drought-grips-region/7614214.html