Growing up, I always had an EpiPen close by in case of a bee sting. One little poke from a bumble and within minutes I would look like Woogie from ‘There’s Something About Mary‘, with a side dose of raspy breathing. So when my heart realized its dream of running an organic farm, I was more than shocked to feel a pull toward beekeeping.
But oh, is the beekeeping pull there! I daydream about a buzzing hive surrounded by a garden of wildflowers, the sweet sticky goodness that comes after a honey harvest, and most importantly: the amazing pollination that my crops could have when surrounded by these hard-working, beneficial insects.
When a dear friend mentioned a local beekeeping demonstration with a Q+A session, I immediately jumped at the chance to see the hives in action. After researching beekeeping for the past year through books, online articles, and blogs, it was time to see the whole process come to life.
As the bee demonstration began, I felt myself nodding along with so much of the information I had come across. The structure of the colony, winterizing the hive, how far honey bees travel… but no book, article, or blog post can compare to the feeling of standing so close to a buzzing colony; a colony that makes life possible – from our daily meals to my own personal farming dreams.
In hopes of sharing my beekeeping love with all of you, here are some fun bee-related facts that you may not know:
♥ Honey bees are pivotal for pollination + are the only type of insect that helps produce food for humans. Roughly 1/3 of our food is made possible by honey bees + pollination.
♥ According to Benefits of Honey, “Honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and water.”
♥ Ever see local honey for sale? Bees can travel up to 150 miles from their hive to collect nectar. Your local honey is made up of nectar from flowers in several different towns + cities.
♥ There are three types of bees within the hive: the queen, the workers + the drones. The queen is the mama bee, the workers are infertile females, and drones are males. The queen bee can lay up to 3,000 eggs per day. The worker bees (infertile females) are in charge of everything in the hive: creating honey, guarding the queen bee, temperature moderation, etc. The drones (males) don’t do much except mate with the queen + die. (What a life, huh?)
♥ According to Heather Hardison, “16 ounces of honey requires 1,152 bees to travel 112,000 miles + visit 4.5 million flowers.”
♥ Honey bees are deaf + not naturally aggressive. If you get stung, you were perceived as a threat to the queen and/or the hive.
Looking back to this afternoon with bees, I’m so glad that I captured these moments – in the blink of an eye, the demonstration was finished. The beekeeper was returning to his day’s work with a smoker in hand and a ‘to do’ list a mile long.
Why is it that the best moments in life always fly by with lightning-fast speeds?
For more honey bee and beekeeping inspiration, stop by my (small, but growing) beekeeping Pinterest board:
Follow Caitlin’s board B E E K E E P I N G on Pinterest.
What do you think about honey bees?
Do you grow any bee-friendly flowers or plants?