A new survey shows that 44 percent of the country’s honeybee colonies died in the past year. Kelley Penn is an organic farmer and beekeeper in Bryson City, North Carolina, with a focus on chemical-free beekeeping. Through a local beekeeper meeting, she met Bobby Jack Smith who has been keeping bees his whole life, and the two struck up an unlikely friendship. Although they don’t always see eye to eye, their mutual admiration and concern for bees has them working together to protect populations in the Smoky Mountain part of the state.

Photo of Kelley Penn by Michelle Lotker