
Morgan Freeman Converts His 124-Acre Ranch into a Giant Bee Sanctuary - gscott
https://life.gomcgill.com/morgan-freeman-converted-giant-ranch-bee-sanctuary-protection
======
esemor
Near my house there is what you could call a insect ”sanctuary”. When it was
established a few tears ago we kind of shrug our shoulders and did not think
much of it. But the amount of new flowers and insects popping up, not only
inside but also around the area is astonishing.

I almost see it as a positive feedback loop with more insects, better
pollination, more diverse flowers, more insects...

Just as pesticides could create a negative feedback loop.

~~~
forkandwait
Could you describe the sanctuary nearby? We live on a typical city lot, and I
am going to try to become a mini-sanctuary over the next few years and would
love working examples.

~~~
mikekchar
Be careful of your city bylaws. I grew a wildflower garden in my backyard in
Canada and got a complaint once. Given that the neighbour to one side asked be
to do it makes me think it might have been the neighbour on the other side :-)
I actually didn't mind cutting it down because I was moving that year anyway,
but it pays to talk with your neighbours and find out what the city requires.
It is especially important to understand what is and is not a noxious weed and
to be on top of keeping them out of your sanctuary.

~~~
forkandwait
Actually, there is a pro-organic, pollinator and wildlife friendly program in
my city whose lead I am following. Another reason I don't move....

My only plan for the summer is to seed the lawn with clover, water weekly, and
keep it cut at the top height of my mower.

How big was your garden, and how visible from the neighbors? In the front I
can see that, but who cares in the back, at least in my area.

~~~
mikekchar
Ah in that case I don't think you'll have a problem. I had white clover,
camomile and timothy hay (the latter I don't recommend, but it's an annual, so
easy to recover from ;-) ) in the front and didn't get any complaints about
it.

The back yard was HUGE. I had wild daisies, black eyed susans, and a variety
of other wild flowers. The previous year I'd grown it in order to bring in
butterflies, etc and my one neighbour really liked it because they could see
it from their second floor windows. The way I did it was to grow it into about
the middle of July and after most of the flowering was finished to mow it
down.

I think the other neighbour was trying to sell their house that year and
instead of just telling me they made a complaint to the city. In fact, I'm
willing to bet that it wasn't my neighbours (who I was friendly with) but
their real estate agent. Like I said, I was not worried about it at all, but
having the city inspector to come to your house and demand that you cut your
garden is somewhat stressful (especially if you were planning to grow it out).

You _may_ get some push back from neighbours about the white clover because it
is fairly invasive, but probably there isn't anything they can do about it.
Anyway, good luck with your lawn! I _really_ enjoyed mine. If you feel like
it, mix in some camomile when you overseed. I think you won't regret it (low
growing, _super_ soft, smells nice and pretty yellow flowers if you let it
grow long enough).

------
mceoin
A number of people have mentioned varroa mites and the problems they cause for
domestic and wild bee populations. For those interested mycologist Paul
Stamets has been trialing the addition of polypore extract to bee food (water
/ sugar water) to boost their immune system. Results on smaller sample set
(~100 hives) was near total eradication of the mites (I think broken wing
disorder was diminished too). Next trial is on sample size of 10k+ hives.

Since domestic and wild bees comingle this should reduce transmission from
domestic to wild bee populations, and hopefully give wild bees a chance to
recover.

For those interested you’ll be able to find Stamets talking about this on
YouTube in his talk “Into The Mycoverse”, and elsewhere, I’m sure.

~~~
ac29
Ha, I could have sworn this was a carefully worded joke -- Paul Stamets is the
name of the mycologist on the new Star Trek series. Coincidence?

~~~
scrumbledober
Calling the Star Trek Stamets a mycologist is almost an understatement.

~~~
mceoin
Astromycologist.

Speaking of which:
[http://journalofastrobiology.com/Mars5.html?fbclid=IwAR0YOON...](http://journalofastrobiology.com/Mars5.html?fbclid=IwAR0YOONxWeybQ65SehF_-
mBJh52rIsppc2n1roqGpKV6G4VwA8xtk-IRzmQ)

------
tptacek
Your periodic reminders that:

1\. Honey bees in North America are a non-native invasive species.

2\. Virtually all honey bees in the United States are livestock.

3\. Colony collapse disorder is an economic issue for commercial beekeepers,
and apparently not much of a problem.

4\. The true threat to honey bees in the United States isn't environment, but
rather the introduction of the _Varroa destructor_ mite in 1987 (which
eradicated feral honey bees).

A "honey bee sanctuary" in the continental US is a weird idea.

~~~
wodenokoto
About number 3, according to wikipedia [1]

> the total U.S. crop value that was wholly dependent on honey bee pollination
> was estimated to exceed $15 billion.

and

> honeybees perform some level of pollination of nearly 75% of all plant
> species directly used for human food worldwide.

Which sounds like a bit more than just beekeeping.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder#Econo...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder#Economic_and_ecological_impact)

~~~
Not_a_pizza
Is there some real figure which would give truth to the amount other insects
would pollinate, if not honey bees? It seems like we have way too many insects
in the world for the honey bee to be the only reliable pollinator.

Besides, aren't solitary bees supposed to be better pollinators?

As much as I like honey, I can't help but thinking there is a huge gap in
logic with all of these people waving and screaming we aren't going to have
food because of dwindling honey bee populations.

~~~
likpok
Realistically, the only plants which rely on honeybee pollination are from
eastern europe, since that's where honeybees lived before the indo-european
expansion.

So any plant that's say native to the new world (corn, beans, squash,
tomatoes) must not rely on honeybees for pollination.

This is not to say that there's not a bee problem: non-honey bees suffer from
habitat loss (and a lack of investment keeping them around).

~~~
pvaldes
The honeybee origin is African rainforests, there are a few of other honeybees
species native from Asian rainforests also.

Some families of plants native of Europe use bees, other not. Is more about
plant phylogeny than about geography. Similar species of flowers in other
areas are quickly adopted by bees when available.

------
partiallypro
One glaring problem I see with this is that anyone who has ever had hives
(which my family has) knows how quickly Varroa mites can spread (the #1 killer
of bees.) If all the bees are in a single location, that could wipe out every
hive there. Would make more sense to me if you made sanctuaries that were
spread on ~1 acre plots around a wide area (thinking several cities/town in a
clustered area.)

Anyone with more expertise is free to correct me, but I feel like clustering
bees on single plots, even 124 acres (which seems big, but is not really that
big,) really has some risk if your end goal is to preserve the species.

~~~
beardicus
Spreading bees out would not make a difference here. All hives have some level
of varroa nowadays. The level depends on management techniques and not so much
proximity to other hives with mites. Spreading hives out into 1 acre plots
wouldn't do much when bees are foraging miles away from the hive, and would
make it more difficult to visit each hive for maintenance.

------
sdrothrock
I've seen people calling him out the use of the word "sanctuary" and
suggesting that this is really just sanctuary for taxes, not bees.

As a pre-emptive counterargument, there's nothing saying that all 124 acres of
his ranch can or should host bees. There are tons of arguments for not wanting
the hives near the house, other outbuildings, or anywhere animals are kept,
for example. It may be that only 26 acres or so (assuming a 1:1 hive:acreage
ratio) have flowering plants etc. that are hospitable to bees, even.

~~~
weego
I've yet to see an argument for why using tax incentives to coerce good
outcomes from people is even a bad thing

~~~
lotsofpulp
Because it can easily be corrupted since you can’t define “good outcome”, and
it’s impossible to prosecute quid pro quo for a wink and nod deal since there
isn’t sufficient evidence.

In a democracy, the government exists to provide a set of services agreed upon
by the people for the benefit of all the people, many times via their elected
representatives. Roads, educational facilities, welfare, military, all of
those expenses don’t disappear because someone decided to donate something.

If you want tax dollars to support a cause, then vote for it. And there’s no
reason tax deductions should be given to support your own little tribe.

~~~
avar
> If you want tax dollars to support a cause, then vote for it.

This is literally what people have voted for by having tax deductions for
certain "good" things, like giving to charity, using some of your land for
bees or whatever.

Just because it's agreed that something should be done in the aggregate,
doesn't mean that it needs to be centrally managed by some state agency. You
decide X is wanted, and then leave the implementation to distributed decision
making.

~~~
lotsofpulp
I think it's easier to hold fewer larger entities accountable, assuming we
mandate transparency, than many small ones. Increasing complexity always
benefits the seller (politicians and their influencers). Ideally, all tax
receipts would go into one pot, and then all expenditures would come out of
it, so it's simple to account for.

We have a system that enables "donations" to religious tribes in exchange for
political support or politicians looting current taxpayers in exchange for
future votes by kicking retiree benefit costs 30 years into the future (this
is literally happening now).

All of these undesirable outcomes for society are only happening because the
complexity creates plausible deniability and difficulty in accounting.

If people want to donate, let them donate, but it needs not having anything to
do with taxes. We can save resources on enforcing tax laws, preparing tax
filings, and obviously remove all this under the table stuff. Just like how
electronic payments reduce tax fraud, only difference is we need total
transparency.

~~~
avar
Whether something is a worthwhile expenditure is a separate from the
discussion about the implementation detail of it being supported directly
through state funding, or indirectly via tax deductions.

E.g. in many EU countries religious organizations are directly funded through
taxes. So in some way it comes down to the same thing, both systems have their
ups & downs.

Doing it via tax deductions is often cheaper, because in many cases you can
get people to match state dollars at some ratio, and since they get to choose
what they fund within some framework they often get some benefit for
themselves as well.

E.g. in this case Morgan Freeman gets to walk around on his private land
covered in bees which'll be partially state funded. The government didn't need
to buy land somewhere just for this purpose.

Instead they find someone who's willing to do this not just for the tax
benefit, but also because they for whatever reason don't mind a lot of bees on
their land.

So Freeman gets a tax write-off, less money is spent overall for the same
amount of bees in the ecosystem, it's a win-win.

------
sagebird
This article is a bit superficial. CCD is more than just pesticides killing
bees. The invasive varroa mite is likely a big factor. It’s a good thing that
he is taking care of bees. The solution might be more complex than sanctuaries
though— IE how can we reduce the mite population?

Potential CCD Causes According to EPA:

... researchers who are leading the effort to find out why are now focused on
these factors: Increased losses due to the invasive varroa mite (a pest of
honey bees). New or emerging diseases such as Israeli Acute Paralysis virus
and the gut parasite Nosema. Pesticide poisoning through exposure to
pesticides applied to crops or for in-hive insect or mite control. Stress bees
experience due to management practices such as transportation to multiple
locations across the country for providing pollination services. Changes to
the habitat where bees forage. Inadequate forage/poor nutrition. Potential
immune-suppressing stress on bees caused by one or a combination of factors
identified above.

~~~
adolph
I like bees, but aren't they effectively an invasive species too?

 _When temperatures increased, fauna and habitat changed drastically, causing
the extinction of Apis in the New World until they were reintroduced by
European settlers in 1622 (Engel et al. 2009)._

[https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/9700...](https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/97006/UMURJ-
Issue09_2012-EWeber.pdf?sequence=1)

~~~
nkurz
European honey bees are an "introduced species"[1], but this doesn't in itself
make them an "invasive species"[2]. To be labeled invasive, they also have to
be causing harm to their new ecosystem. While there might be some ways that
honey bees are harmful[3], they aren't usually considered invasive.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduced_species](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduced_species)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species)

[3] [https://www.xerces.org/wp-
content/uploads/2018/06/16-067_02_...](https://www.xerces.org/wp-
content/uploads/2018/06/16-067_02_Overview-of-the-Potential-Impacts-of-Honey-
Bees_web.pdf)

------
mastazi
Is this website a source we can trust? I've looked at a couple other articles
and it looked a bit sketchy.

~~~
lemoncurd
You can just google the headline and you will find a Forbes article about it.

~~~
haasted
It's an article on "Forbes sites", though. It's the equivalent of sort-of-
trusted bloggers. Seems Forbes really don't care about their online brand
anymore.

~~~
sohkamyung
Personally, I would see who the writer on Forbes is, rather than just dismiss
the entire Forbes website.

For example, I read articles published on Forbes by "Starts With a Bang" (an
astrophysicists) and "GrrlScientist" (a biologist) because I have read their
articles previously published from other sites before they moved to Forbes and
enjoy what they write.

~~~
mikekchar
This particular author seems to just be starting out on their career. I could
only find 2 other articles authored by them on the internet. The article
itself is pretty light and is mostly quoting twitter and pre-existing
interviews on on a talk show.

Can you trust it? Hmmm... Well, you could check up the Twitter postings to see
if they are real :-). Not sure if there is much to trust...

------
ada1981
🇺🇸 I met Morgan Freeman at a screening of Bucket List in DC.

I asked him if we could play Rock Paper Scissors.

He said he didn’t know how. So I taught him.

He then told me what he was going to throw. I told him he shouldn’t do that.

Then I beat him.

So I both taught and beat Morgan Freeman at Rock Paper Sissors.

~~~
mixmastamyk
Fun story. Btw, is that an emoji? Thought they were stripped from input.

~~~
ada1981
I thought so too, but for some reason a few aren’t. I posted about it
yesterday.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19482991](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19482991)

~~~
mixmastamyk
Ok, looks like some unicode blocks such as flags are not stripped.

~~~
tramtrist
🇯🇵 Cool

~~~
ada1981
🛶 as Terrance McKenna said “Build your own damn boat.”

------
labster
124 acres doesn't seem all that giant, not even a half mile squared. Maybe I'm
reading "Giant Bee Sanctuary" wrong. Is it a sanctuary for Giant Bees[0]?

[0]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19221337](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19221337)

~~~
dagw
Without knowing the median size of current bee sanctuaries it's impossible to
say how 124 acres ranks. Perhaps the typical bee sanctuary is less than an
acre.

------
dnate
For those who were wondering:

124 acres =~ 0.5 square km or 50 hectar

so pretty big

~~~
ghaff
Pretty big is relative. Sure, that's pretty big relative to suburban plots
that are more likely to be in the 1/2 to 2 acre range. But it's not huge once
you get even moderately rural; my two neighbors and I are on about 75 acres
collectively. And it's actually pretty small relative to, say, many ranches
out West.

------
6nf
This website ... Normally I wouldn't complain but really isn't there a better
source?

------
wsc981
James Hetfield (singer of Metallica) has also become a part-time beekeeper:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrFdI8U9Ri4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrFdI8U9Ri4)

------
pault
Is it safe to live in a sanctuary for giant bees?

~~~
RankingMember
In my experience bees don't really mess with you unless you try to (or
accidentally) mess with their nest.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
I think GP was making a joke based on the ambiguous wording of the headline.
;)

FWIW though, we have a hive in our back garden and the bees don't bother us or
the neighbours at all.

~~~
lostlogin
Dosing them with honey works in my experience. I’m up early with lights on and
it’s the end of the season (meaning lots of bees with little to productive
work to do). They are pinging off the window next to me.

------
platz
It's up to the wealthy to save us helpless souls now

~~~
FilterSweep
That’s the end result of crony capitalism, baby.

------
KorematsuFred
I believe that is to get the tax break by classifying the land as agricultural
? Scarlet Johnson, Bon Jovi and many have been doing this for years.

Of course I wouldn't care about motives, if it ends up protecting bees why
not.

------
peteradio
Is this for honeybees?? I hope its for native bees because why would you
create a sanctuary for what is basically an agricultural animal like cow or
sheep.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
Why not both? Native bees can live alongside honeybees quite happily.

------
MagicPropmaker
Giant Bees!

------
pvdebbe
Get beesy living or get busy dying.

------
azeotropic
That's nice, but the honeybee population is not declining.

[https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/88117/err-246....](https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/88117/err-246.pdf?v=43186)
[http://time.com/4885569/honeybee-population-
increase/](http://time.com/4885569/honeybee-population-increase/)
[https://www.agprofessional.com/article/bee-population-
rising...](https://www.agprofessional.com/article/bee-population-rising-
around-world)

~~~
pixel_
That's nice, but none of those articles address wild populations.

~~~
azeotropic
The original article is about Morgan Freeman keeping honeybees, in case you
didn't read it.

