Okay, here’s something to warm the ol’ cockles: Kirk Webster, a smalltime beekeeper, has used old-fashioned breeding techniques to develop bees resistant to varroa mite.

If you’re old enough and pay attention to this sort of thing, you may have noticed you see fewer wild honey bees now than when you were a kid. This mite is why: if it infects a hive, the hive is usually doomed.

Most commercial beekeepers control the mite with pesticides.

Not Kirk. Bless him.

(This, btw, is why I try to support small farmers.)