In June, Beekon joined B-THENET in Poland and Germany to talk about bees, climate change, and how we can help beekeepers adapt to a changing agricultural reality in the world today. We presented "The 'Plan Bee' for a Changing Climate" to an invited audience of over 4,000 people, alongside leaders in the beekeeping and pollinator health space including Dr. Kirsten Traynor, Maggie Gill, Dr. Peter Neumann, Flemming Vejsnæs, Dr. Carolin Rein, and Torsten Ellmann. My roots are Polish, so bringing Beekon into conversations back at home felt particularly surreal and meaningful. This trip also would not have happened if not for the kind invite of Dr. Kirsten Traynor from the University of Hohenheim, who is simply the best of the best.

(Left to right) Kirsten Traynor, Konrad Borowski, and Michael Orr in front of the Jagiellonian University, the second-oldest continuously operating university in Central Europe since 1364.

One point that has stayed with me from these conversations is the time it takes to recover from extreme events. Replacing equipment, rebuilding colonies, and restoring forage that leads to pollination take considerably longer after collapse. Allthewhile farmers and agriculture require this very pollination during these interruptions. 

Recovery is not a trampoline, and we cannot assume everything springs back to normal as soon as the first wave of danger passes.

A Jan Stanisławski painting of a traditional apiary at the Kraków National Museum.

After our presentations, we also had the opportunity to explore Kraków and re-experience its architecture, history, and urban design. What a wonderful adventure in the summer sun that was. While the B-THENET conference has already passed, a link to the recorded events can be found here.