Do you like apples? I do. What would it be like to never be able to bite into a crisp fresh apple again? It is hard to imagine but it could happen if bees disappear. Do you know that without bees one-third of our grown food products would become extinct. Beekeeping is a fun and productive hobby that helps preserve one of nature’s greatest assets, the honey bee.

 It is important to our health and that of our future generations that more people learn beekeeping and how to protect our bees.

When Skeet told me he wanted to become a beekeeper. I was not exactly thrilled with the thought, but I figured we could give it a shot anyway. I began researching bees and how to take care of them to be a part of his hobby, since I wasn’t going to get too close to those hives, and I found out so much more than I thought I would. Not only have we been able to create the all natural products that so many people enjoy, we have learned so much about the honey bees.

A beehive has been compared to a city. A beehive is very structured and every bee knows its work and its place in the hive. They all work together for the good of the hive.

There are three types of bees in a bee colony. A queen, there will be only one per hive, drones which are the only males and workers who are all female.

When a new queen hatches she will take her maiden voyage. This is the only time a queen will ever leave her hive until she dies. She will mate with 6 to 8 drones during this voyage and they will all be from hives other that her own. This is nature taking care of inbreeding. Queen bees can live 3 to 6 years. They are the longest living bee in the hive.

The drones are there only to mate with queens. They don’t do any work but just lay around and eat and are waited on by the workers. They don’t have stingers so they can’t even protect the hive. They are killed off each fall by the worker bees since they are not needed during the winter and they will take food from the larvae.

The worker bees do all the work. The worker bee only lives for 4 to 5 weeks during the summer but can live up to 2 months during the winter when there is less work. They are the ones you see flying and collecting pollen and nectar. They keep a very clean house and can be seen pushing dead bees and trash out of the hive.

The Honey Bee is so important to humans and the sad thing is that most humans aren’t even aware of this. There are so many benefits we enjoy from the honey bee.

Honey is the first thing people think of as a benefit of keeping bees and with good reason. It is a pure food that is easily digestible and a good source of energy. And it tastes good. Local honey is also good for allergens.

Pollination is another benefit of beekeeping. Gardens yield more produce when there are honey bees nearby. There are many edible plants that we enjoy that we would not have without the intervention of bees. Almonds are one such product we enjoy that must have bees to pollinate. Most fruit trees and nut trees need help from bees to pollinate.

Honey has medicinal properties also. Honey is a natural antiseptic that has been used in the past for everything from burns to stomach ulcers. Honey is said to be a preventative for certain forms of cancer and it is has natural antibacterial properties. Propolis has healing properties and Royal jelly which is what the queen bee is fed, is said to prevent aging.

Beekeeping is fun and beneficial and I am so glad we are a part of this miracle of nature.