Beecause We Care
Donation protected
The events of Saturday, February 8th created a newsworthy buzz all over our Denver Metro area. Zoya and Boris, regular customers of what had been Karl’s Farm Dairy since 1999, went on their routine visit across town to check on their 30 beehives, and found nothing but a field blanketed in snow on the Karl’s Dairy property, where they had been allowed to keep their bees for almost a decade. Shocked and heartbroken, Zoya and Boris contacted the property owners with the devastating news of the theft. One member of the Karl’s Dairy family wrote a Facebook post on her private site, as well as a community site. Soon, media crews began reaching out and the news of the missing bees was capturing all sorts of attention. The 30 active, hand-made bee hives, that took 11 years to cultivate, were now gone.
Zoya had gifted two bee hives to Boris in 2009 to enhance their quality of life. During a bout of depression, Zoya remembered that Boris learned beekeeping from his father beginning at age 4. She hoped that caring for the bees would benefit Boris’ mental health, and soon after it benefited her physical health as well. At that time, Zoya was living with the side effects of chemotherapy with having a compromised immune system, and was very weak. With the now mature bee hives, Boris began to recreate a natural blend that he had learned from his father. The remedy was directly linked to better outcomes for Zoya as she did not feel as sick, and her quality and duration of sleep improved, as did her stamina. This blend began to make life altering impacts for each of them which created a drive to cultivate more hives.
Soon, the number of beehives grew to 30 over the course of nearly a decade. However, the plot twist occurred during a time of an emotional transition for the family of the dairy farm that had been a staple in the community for over 70 years. With the immediate closing of the property looming, the tenants had been rehomed which left a window open for a crime of opportunity, which has been sugar coated as a “misunderstanding.” Knowledge spread as did mistruths and mistrust, resulting in an acquaintance of a past tenant, helping himself to the 30 active beehives that had continued to be tended to weekly, on the assumption that everything was up for grabs. The beehives were then mishandled when sold on Craigslist between February 1 and February 6th. As the new broke, one buyer of 18 of the 30 hives, immediately came forward and was heralded a hero. Everyone in the community, especially Zoya and Boris looked forward to being reunited with the bees. However, it was soon learned that many of the hives did not have viable bees and most of the made-with-care beehives had been badly damaged. What was anticipated as being a joyous occasion, turned into deeper despair. What remains now is the process of recovering and repairing what remains, rebuilding the still unaccounted bee hives, and replacing lost colonies. The latest update is that only nine of the hives are alive, and two of those are really struggling. Best case scenario, less than a third of the bees are on their road to recovery with the help of their attentive keeper.
The request of the Karl’s Dairy family is that we continue to pull together in a time of need to build connections in our community for the betterment of our environment, and show or support for Zoya and Boris resulting in this GoFundMe effort to recoup what’s been lost. The goal of this fundraiser is set at $10,000. If this amount is exceeded, the family of Karl’s Dairy, in partnership with Zoya and Boris, have identified a charity to donate the remaining monies. Any additional money will be donated to the Honeybee Conservancy which impacts communities across the United States, with the most local chapter beeeeing in Colorado Springs. “The Honeybee Conservancy is a public charity that works to help bees.” The Conservancy specifies that “Far from being a niche of concern, bees are the heart of our survival. One of three bites of food we eat depends entirely on bees- and they are dying out.” Let’s band together to do our part to help bring awareness to the importance of bees alongside of our efforts to support Zoya and Borris, our community partners. – Please refer to thehoneybeeconservancy.org website for more information.
Zoya had gifted two bee hives to Boris in 2009 to enhance their quality of life. During a bout of depression, Zoya remembered that Boris learned beekeeping from his father beginning at age 4. She hoped that caring for the bees would benefit Boris’ mental health, and soon after it benefited her physical health as well. At that time, Zoya was living with the side effects of chemotherapy with having a compromised immune system, and was very weak. With the now mature bee hives, Boris began to recreate a natural blend that he had learned from his father. The remedy was directly linked to better outcomes for Zoya as she did not feel as sick, and her quality and duration of sleep improved, as did her stamina. This blend began to make life altering impacts for each of them which created a drive to cultivate more hives.
Soon, the number of beehives grew to 30 over the course of nearly a decade. However, the plot twist occurred during a time of an emotional transition for the family of the dairy farm that had been a staple in the community for over 70 years. With the immediate closing of the property looming, the tenants had been rehomed which left a window open for a crime of opportunity, which has been sugar coated as a “misunderstanding.” Knowledge spread as did mistruths and mistrust, resulting in an acquaintance of a past tenant, helping himself to the 30 active beehives that had continued to be tended to weekly, on the assumption that everything was up for grabs. The beehives were then mishandled when sold on Craigslist between February 1 and February 6th. As the new broke, one buyer of 18 of the 30 hives, immediately came forward and was heralded a hero. Everyone in the community, especially Zoya and Boris looked forward to being reunited with the bees. However, it was soon learned that many of the hives did not have viable bees and most of the made-with-care beehives had been badly damaged. What was anticipated as being a joyous occasion, turned into deeper despair. What remains now is the process of recovering and repairing what remains, rebuilding the still unaccounted bee hives, and replacing lost colonies. The latest update is that only nine of the hives are alive, and two of those are really struggling. Best case scenario, less than a third of the bees are on their road to recovery with the help of their attentive keeper.
The request of the Karl’s Dairy family is that we continue to pull together in a time of need to build connections in our community for the betterment of our environment, and show or support for Zoya and Boris resulting in this GoFundMe effort to recoup what’s been lost. The goal of this fundraiser is set at $10,000. If this amount is exceeded, the family of Karl’s Dairy, in partnership with Zoya and Boris, have identified a charity to donate the remaining monies. Any additional money will be donated to the Honeybee Conservancy which impacts communities across the United States, with the most local chapter beeeeing in Colorado Springs. “The Honeybee Conservancy is a public charity that works to help bees.” The Conservancy specifies that “Far from being a niche of concern, bees are the heart of our survival. One of three bites of food we eat depends entirely on bees- and they are dying out.” Let’s band together to do our part to help bring awareness to the importance of bees alongside of our efforts to support Zoya and Borris, our community partners. – Please refer to thehoneybeeconservancy.org website for more information.
Organizer and beneficiary
Shannon Sublette
Organizer
Thornton, CO
Zoya Cherny
Beneficiary
