Honey bees are so cool. And so useful. And in so much danger.
Without honey bees, you would have to do without
- all fruit grown in America (save berries)
- cows’ milk and milk products (alfalfa depends upon bees)
- tree nuts (the California almond industry would completely die)
- soybeans and soy products (the soybean industry would also die)
Apis mellifera, the European honey bee, has been suffering from large-scale die-off in America. The condition, known as Colony Collapse Disorder, seems to be caused by a combination of conditions, most particularly the overuse of insecticides (which kill bees), overuse of herbicides (which destroys bees’ food sources–mostly native weedy plants), and loss of habitat. Beekeepers are urged to keep hives vigorous and active by means used by good practitioners of animal husbandry–keeping vital, healthy breeding stock, and not exporting stock into areas of the world where they don’t normally live.
The Trophy Fiancé© and I recently attended a beginner’s class in beekeeping run by the University of Minnesota Extension Service, and we will begin raising them this spring if everything falls right. Hopefully I’ll soon being doing stuff like this.
Wish me luck.
