According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), bees of all sorts pollinate approximately 75 percent of the fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in the United States.

A honey bee is a eusocial flying insect within the genus Apis. Bees are all native to Eurasia but spread to four other continents by human beings.

There are cave paintings in Spain from 7000BC showing the earliest documentation of honey harvesting. However, one would think that honey had been harvested by humans before this time because fossils of honey bees date back about 150 million years!

The earliest record of keeping bees in manmade hives was found in the sun temple.erected in 2400BC near Cairo.

During this time, the bee was featured frequently in Egyptian hieroglyphs and often symbolized royalty.

The ancient Egyptians used honey as a sweetener, as a gift to their gods and even as an ingredient in embalming fluid. Honey cakes were baked by the Egyptians and used as an offering to placate the gods. The Greeks, too, made honey cakes and offered them to the gods.

The Greeks viewed honey as not only an important food but also as healing medicine. Greek recipe books were full of sweetmeats and cakes made from honey.

Cheeses were mixed with honey to make cheesecakes, described by Euripides in the fifth century BC as being “steeped most thoroughly in the rich honey of the golden bee.” The Romans also used honey as a gift to the gods and they used it extensively in cooking. Beekeeping flourished throughout the Roman empire.

Once Christianity was established, honey and beeswax production increased greatly to meet the demand for church candles.

Honey continued to be of importance in Europe until the Renaissance when the arrival of sugar from further afield meant honey was used less.

By the seventeenth century, sugar was being used regularly as a sweetener and honey was used even less. As bees were thought to have special powers, they were often used as emblems:

There are nearly 20,000 known bee species in the world, and 4,000 of them are native to the United States.

Furthermore, an estimated 400 additional native bee species remain to be identified in the U.S.

Amazingly, one out of every four bites of food people take is courtesy of bee pollination. In sum, bee pollination is responsible for more than $15 billion in increased crop value each year.

Many domestic and imported fruits and vegetables require pollination. Examples include avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash, and sunflowers for oil, cucumbers, citrus fruit, peaches, kiwis, cherries, cranberries, and melons.

For crops such as blueberries and almonds, the honey bee plays an essential role in the pollination of commercial crops, with around 80% of the US crop said to be dependent on honey bees.

Honey bees can also pollinate clover and alfalfa, which are fed to cattle, so there are implications for the meat and dairy industry too. And that is not to mention the huge range of manufactured food products made from all these ingredients.

In addition, honey bees play a significant role in the pollination of other important crops such as cotton and flax.

And there are also a number of valuable non-food products produced by the honey bee, such as beeswax used in cleaning and beauty products.

According to the international conservation nonprofit Earthwatch Institute, bees are the most valuable species on earth. The proclamation was made last July at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society of London.

Bees and other insects play a significant role in the survival of the planet. And they aren’t alone in suffering from heavy pesticide use.

Many specialists insist that we are at the start of the sixth mass extinction in the planet’s history.

A report released by the Wildlife Trusts, a science-led nonprofit that focuses on restoring wildlife habitats, says we also face an “unnoticed insect apocalypse.”

Humans Can Change The World! And NOT just For The Bad!

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of U.S. honeybee colonies rose in 2017 from a year earlier.

The number of commercial U.S. honeybee colonies rose 3 percent to 2.89 million as of April 1, compared with 2.8 million a year earlier.

You Can Change The World In Your Own Yard! It;s Easy! Plant A Plant! You Changedd The World!

More and more gardeners are anxious to plant a bee garden. By planting a bee garden, you too can do your part to help the bees by adding to the shrinking inventory of flower-rich habitat in your area.

Replace part or all of your front lawn grass with flowering plants, which provides food and habitat for honey bees, bumblebees, solitary bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

Select single flower tops for your bee garden such as daisies and marigolds, rather than double flower tops such as double impatiens.

Double-headed flowers look showy but produce much less nectar and make it much more difficult for bees to access pollen.

Skip the highly hybridized plants which have been bred not to seed and thus produce very little pollen for bees.

Plan for blooms year-round by planting at least three different types of flowers in your bee garden to ensure blooms through as many seasons as possible.

This will provide bees and other pollinators with a constant source of food. For example:

Build homes for native bees by leaving a patch of the garden in a sunny spot uncultivated for native bees that burrow. Some native bees also need access to soil surface for nesting.

For wood- and stem-nesting bees, this means piles of branches, bamboo sections, hollow reeds, or nesting blocks made out of untreated wood.

Mason bees need a source of water and mud, and many kinds of bees are attracted to weedy, untended hedgerows.

What Plants Are Good For What Bees?

1 Okra Abelmoschus esculentus Honey bees (incl. Apis cerana), Solitary bees (Halictus spp.) fruit 2 Kiwifruit Actinidia deliciosa Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees fruit 3 Onion Allium cepa Honey bees, Solitary bees, Blow flies seed 4 Cashew Anacardium occidentale Honey bees, Stingless bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees (Centris tarsata), Butterflies, Flies, hummingbirds nut 5 Celery Apium graveolens Honey bees, Solitary bees, Flies seed 6 Strawberry tree Arbutus unedo Honey bees, Bumblebees fruit 7 Carambola, Starfruit Averrhoa carambola Honey bees, Stingless bees fruit 8 Beet Beta vulgaris Hover Flies, Honey bees, Solitary bees seed 9 Mustard Brassica alba, Brassica hirta, Brassica nigra Honey bees, Solitary bees (Osmia cornifrons, Osmia lignaria) seed 10 Rapeseed Brassica napus Honey bees, Solitary bees seed 11 Broccoli Brassica oleracea cultivar Honey bees, Solitary bees seed 12 Cauliflower Brassica oleracea Botrytis Group Honey bees, Solitary bees seed 13 Cabbage Brassica oleracea Capitata Group Honey bees, Solitary bees seed 14 Brussels sprouts Brassica oleracea Gemmifera Group Honey bees, Solitary bees seed 15 Chinese cabbage Brassica rapa Honey bees, Solitary bees seed 16 Turnip, Canola Brassica rapa Honey bees, Solitary bees (Andrena ilerda, Osmia cornifrons, Osmia lignaria, Halictus spp.), Flies seed 17 Pigeon pea, Cajan pea, Congo bean Cajanus cajan Honey bees, Solitary bees (Megachile spp.), Carpenter bees seed 18 Chilli pepper, Red pepper, Bell pepper, Green pepper Capsicum annuum, Capsicum frutescens Honey bees, Stingless bees (Melipona spp.), Bumblebees, Solitary bees, Hover flies fruit 19 Papaya Carica papaya Honey bees, thrips, large sphinx moths, Moths, Butterflies fruit 20 Safflower Carthamus tinctorius Honey bees, Solitary bees seed 21 Caraway Carum carvi Honey bees, Solitary bees, Flies seed 22 Chestnut Castanea sativa Honey bees, Solitary bees nut 23 Watermelon Citrullus lanatus Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees fruit 24 Tangerine Citrus tangerina Honey bees, Bumblebees fruit 25 Orange, Grapefruit, Tangelo Citrus spp. Honey bees, Bumblebees fruit 26 Coconut Cocos nucifera Honey bees, Stingless bees nut 27 Coffea spp. Coffea arabica, Coffea canephora Coffea spp. Honey bees, Stingless bees, Solitary bees fruit 28 Coriander Coriandrum sativum Honey bees, Solitary bees seed 29 Crownvetch Coronilla varia L. Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees seed (increased yield from pollinators) 30 Azarole Crataegus azarolus Honey bees, Solitary bees fruit 31 Cantaloupe, Melon Cucumis melo L. Honey bees, Squash bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees (Ceratina spp.) fruit 32 Cucumber Cucumis sativus Honey bees, Squash bees, Bumblebees, Leafcutter bee (in greenhouse pollination), Solitary bees (for some parthenocarpic gynoecious green house varieties pollination is detrimental to fruit quality) fruit 33 Squash (plant), Pumpkin, Gourd, Marrow, Zucchini Cucurbita spp. Honey bees, Squash bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees fruit 34 Guar bean, Goa bean Cyamopsis tetragonoloba Honey bees seed 35 Quince Cydonia oblonga Mill. Honey bees fruit 36 Lemon Honey bees fruit 37 Lime Honey bees fruit 38 Carrot Daucus carota Flies, Solitary bees, Honey bees seed 39 Hyacinth bean Dolichos spp. Honey bees, Solitary bees seed 40 Longan Dimocarpus longan Honey bees, Stingless bees 41 Persimmon Diospyros kaki, Diospyros virginiana Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees fruit 42 Cardamom Elettaria cardamomum Honey bees, Solitary bees 43 Loquat Eriobotrya japonica Honey bees, Bumblebees fruit 44 Buckwheat Fagopyrum esculentum Honey bees, Solitary bees seed 45 Feijoa Feijoa sellowiana Honey bees, Solitary bees fruit 46 Fennel Foeniculum vulgare Honey bees, Solitary bees, Flies seed 47 Strawberry Fragaria spp. Honey bees, Stingless bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees (Halictus spp.), Hover flies fruit 48 Cotton Gossypium spp. Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees seed, fiber 49 Sunflower Helianthus annuus Bumblebees, Solitary bees, Honey bees seed 50 Flax Linum usitatissimum Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees seed 51 Lychee Litchi chinensis Honey bees, Flies fruit 52 Lupine Lupinus angustifolius L. Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees seed 53 Macadamia Macadamia ternifolia Honey bees, Stingless bees (Trigona carbonaria), Solitary bees (Homalictus spp.), Wasps, Butterflies nut 54 Acerola Malpighia glabra Honey bees, Solitary bees fruit (minor commercial value) 55 Apple Malus domestica, or Malus sylvestris Honey bees, orchard mason bee, Bumblebees, Solitary bees (Andrena spp., Halictus spp., Osmia spp., Anthophora spp.), Hover flies (Eristalis cerealis, Eristalis tenax) fruit 56 Mango Mangifera indica Honey bees, Stingless bees, Flies, Ants, Wasps fruit 57 Alfalfa Medicago sativa Alfalfa leafcutter bee, Alkali bee, Honey bees seed 58 Rambutan Nephelium lappaceum Honey bees, Stingless bees, Flies fruit 59 Sainfoin Onobrychis spp. Honey bees, Solitary bees seed 60 Avocado Persea americana Stingless bees, Solitary bees, Honey bees fruit 61 Lima bean, Kidney bean, Haricot bean, Adzuki bean, Mungo bean, String bean, Green bean Phaseolus spp. Honey bees, Solitary bees fruit, seed 62 Scarlet runner bean Phaseolus coccineus L. Bumblebees, Honey bees, Solitary bees, Thrips seed 63 Allspice Pimenta dioica Honey bees, Solitary bees (Halictus spp., Exomalopsis spp., Ceratina spp.) 64 Apricot Prunus armeniaca Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees, Flies fruit 65 Sweet Cherry Prunus avium spp. Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees, Flies fruit 66 Sour cherry Prunus cerasus Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees, Flies fruit 67 Plum, Greengage, Mirabelle, Sloe Prunus domestica, Prunus spinosa Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees, Flies fruit 68 Almond Prunus dulcis, Prunus amygdalus, or Amygdalus communis Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees (Osmia cornuta), Flies nut 69 Peach, Nectarine Prunus persica Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees, Flies fruit 70 Guava Psidium guajava Honey bees, Stingless bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees (Lasioglossum spp.) fruit 71 Pomegranate Punica granatum Honey bees, Solitary bees, Beetles fruit 72 Pear Pyrus communis Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees, Hover flies (Eristalis spp.) fruit 73 Black currant, Red currant Ribes nigrum, Ribes rubrum Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees fruit 74 Rose hips, Dogroses Rosa spp. Honey bees, Bumblebees, Carpenter bees, Solitary bees, Hover flies 75 Boysenberry Rubus spp. Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees fruit 76 Raspberry Rubus idaeus Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees, Hover flies (Eristalis spp.) fruit 77 Blackberry Rubus fruticosus Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees, Hover flies (Eristalis spp.) fruit 78 Elderberry Sambucus nigra Honey bees, Solitary bees, Flies, Longhorn beetles fruit 79 Sesame Sesamum indicum Honey bees, Solitary bees, Wasps, Flies seed 80 Rowanberry Sorbus aucuparia Honey bees, Solitary bees, Bumblebees, Hover flies fruit 81 Hog plum Spondias spp. Honey bees, Stingless bees (Melipona spp.) fruit 82 Tamarind Tamarindus indica Honey bees (incl. Apis dorsata) fruit 83 Clover (not all species) Trifolium spp. Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees seed 84 White clover Trifolium alba Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees seed 85 Alsike clover Trifolium hybridum L. Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees seed 86 Crimson clover Trifolium incarnatum Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees seed 87 Red clover Trifolium pratense Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees seed 88 Arrowleaf clover Trifolium vesiculosum Savi Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees seed 89 Cranberry Vaccinium oxycoccus, Vaccinium macrocarpon Bumblebees (Bombus affinis), Solitary bees (Megachile addenda, Alfalfa leafcutter bees), Honey bees fruit 90 Broad bean Vicia faba Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees seed 91 Vetch Vicia spp. Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees seed 92 Cowpea, Black-eyed pea, Blackeye bean Vigna unguiculata Honey bees, Bumblebees, Solitary bees seed 93 Karite Vitellaria paradoxa Honey bees nut 94 Grape Vitis spp. Honey bees, Solitary bees, Flies fruit 95 Jujube Zizyphus jujuba Honey bees, Solitary bees, Flies, Beetles, Wasps fruit

Only Use Natural Pesticides and Fertilizers WHy Use Anything Else?

Avoid using herbicides or pesticides in the bee garden.

They not only can be toxic to bees but also are best not introduced to children or adults that visit your garden.

Ladybugs, spiders, and praying mantises will naturally keep pest populations in check.

Build a Bee Bath Or Buy One, Click On The Photo To Purchase!

Bees need a place to get fresh, clean water. Fill a shallow container of water with pebbles or twigs for the bees to land on while drinking.

Make sure to maintain the container full of freshwater to ensure that they know they can return to the same spot every day in your bee garden.

Bees And Honey Have Been Around Forever Let’s Work Together To Keep It That Way!

Honey use and production have a long and varied history as an ancient activity.

The ancient Egyptians offered honey to their deities as a sacrifice. They also used honey for embalming the dead.

The cultivation of honey probably originated in Tropical Africa and spread from there to Northern Europe and East into Asia. Native Americans did not know honey. In 1622, the first European colonists brought the sub-species Apis mellifera mellifera to the Americas.

Is beeswax a bee poop? No, honey bees have four glands that excrete liquid wax and the material they excrete hardens as it is oxidized in the air.

Their excrement ( poop as you term it ) is often deposited on flowers and honey is regurgitated from the bees after the enzymatic activity in the stomach.

Honey is not bee vomit. It is perceived as vomit as it comes out from the bee’s mouth. But it is not. The bee sucks and collects the nectar from flowers using its long proboscis and store it in its special stomach or “honey stomach” separate from its true stomach for digestion.

Oddly, Honey does not go bad. In fact, it’s recognized as the only food that doesn’t spoil. It will, however, crystallize (becoming thick and cloudy) over time. If this happens, just remove the lid from the jar, place it in a pan of water, and warm it over low heat until the honey returns to its original consistency.

The Bee Has All The BUZZ!

Even Famous People Love ‘Em!

Pope Urban VIII used the bee as his emblem.

The bee was the sign of the king of Lower Egypt during the First Dynasty around 3,200BC.

Napoleon’s flag carried a single line of bees in flight, and his robe was embroidered with bees.

In the third century BC, the bee was the emblem used on coins in the Greek city of Ephesus.

The bee was the symbol of the Greek goddess Artemis.

The bee was the emblem of eros/cupid.

The Craziest Things!?!?! It’s Life, RIght?



One bee has to fly about 90,000 miles, or three times around the globe, just to make one pound of honey.

The average bee will make only 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.

A honey bee can fly for up to six miles, and as fast as 15 miles per hour.

Research published in the Royal Society found that bumblebees living in urban areas experience healthier lives than their counterparts in rural habitats. Their colonies are larger, better fed, and less prone to disease. Urban colonies also survive longer than their country cousins.

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