The Importance of Honeybees

When most people see a honeybee they fear them and either run away or kill them not knowing their importance and beauty. If you take a moment and observe a bee you will something amazing. A creature that works day and night to support their colony by collecting nectar from flower to flower and a creature that keeps us humans alive and healthy. You may or may not know that a third of our food products are pollinated by bees. Nut, berry, onion, apple and tomato crops are just a small few. Without these foods that are rich in vitamins and nutrients, humans would have a very bland and unhealthy diet of meat and grains. And don't forget the sweet honey that can be used as a healthy organic substitute for sugar or a healthy treat that satisfies a sweet tooth and helps build a resistance to allergies. You also probably use many beeswax products made by honeybees to make comb and cap off cells full of honey. Over the past couple of decades, honeybee numbers have dropped dramatically. This is most likely due to agricultural pesticides large scale farmers put on their crops to keep insects from eating up their source of income. Unfortunately, the insecticides they use don't just kill pests. It also kills pollinators. A whole colony of bees can be wiped out very quickly when the worker bees come in contact with these dangerous chemicals. This is known as Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. Many beekeepers across the world rely on their bees for profit and CCD has caused thousands of them to go bankrupt after the death of all of their hives. The honey and beeswax industry is huge, but it is being destroyed by pesticides. The agriculture industry is also being destroyed by lack of pollination, which means lack of fruit and vegetable production. If this rapid drop bee populations doesn't stop, humans and animals could be in danger. Albert Einstein said "If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live"