Hey, a lot of us like the junk food. It doesn’t mean we are bad people. And this doesn’t mean these are bad bees.
Bees from Brooklyn have been showing up in their hives a nice shade of red. No, they haven’t joined a gang, but they do have a sweet tooth. Well, if they had teeth.
Anyway, the red bees have been making the trek over to Redhook(yes, Redhook) to suck on some maraschino cherry juice. No, I am not making this up.
“I thought maybe it was coming from some kind of weird tree, maybe a sumac,” said Ms. Mayo, who tends seven hives for Added Value, an education nonprofit in Red Hook. “We were at a loss.”
An acquaintance, only joking, suggested the unthinkable: Maybe the bees were hitting the juice — maraschino cherry juice, that sweet, sticky stuff sloshing around vats at Dell’s Maraschino Cherries Company over on Dikeman Street in Red Hook.
“I didn’t want to believe it,” said Ms. Mayo, a soft-spoken young woman who has long been active in the slow-food movement. She found it particularly hard to believe that the bees would travel all the way from Governors Island to gorge themselves on junk food. “Why would they go to the cherry factory,” she said, “when there’s a lot for them to forage right there on the farm?”
Red dye #40, yummmmmmmmm.
The beekeepers and the cherry factory are trying to remedy the problem. Am I the only one who thinks they may be missing a real opportunity here? They could spearhead the maraschino honey market! If it is good enough for the bees, it is good enough for me.
