pollinators

What the Pollen Was Missing

I was on the eastern terraces at dawn — which is where I am most mornings, if we’re being honest — when Fumiko called me over to Hive Cluster 9. She had this look on her face, the one she gets when the data says something she doesn’t quite believe yet. “Marcus, come count with me.” I counted. Then I counted again. Fourteen active brood frames. Fourteen. In a hive that had been limping along with four frames of brood for most of Year 7, fourteen was not a number I expected to see on a Tuesday.