Hampden Bee Population Now Double The People Population Of Maine

I grew up in the lovely little town of Hampden, and when the opportunity arose for us to move back there this year, my wife and I jumped at the chance. Call it nostalgia, habit, sentimental old fool.... whatever. But it felt very nice moving back to my actual "home town". And since we've gotten back, I keep finding out about all these cool things that I certainly don't remember happening when I grew up.

Well today, I just read about The Bee Whisperer for the first time. Peter Cowin is a beekeeper in Hampden who not only maintains more than 150 hives around town, but he also rents them out and teaches beekeeping.

This week, Cowin received quite a delivery: 2.5 million bees. That's right, more bees in his possession, then there are people in the whole state of Maine. By a ratio of about 2.5 to 1! Speaking to WFVX TV-22, Cowin mentioned why he has so many brought in from down south by truck:

These are bees which have a queen bee in them, and they've been shaken out of hives that are big and healthy down in Florida right now, so that we can start up hives here in Maine.

We've heard plenty on the news the last couple years about the drastic decline in bee populations. And honestly, a lot of people don't know what a big deal that is. Frankly, without bees, many plants of all types that need assistance being pollinated, would die out. Birds don't make up enough of the difference to keep all the plants going.

And let's not forget ... honey!