Why we Need Bees What we Can do to Help.

Honey bees are at risk and have been severely on the decline in massive amounts since the 1980's.  Scientist really are completely sure why but they think it may have something to do with farms performing pest removal with pesticides on their crops.  The bees then pollinate those crops; bringing the poisons back to their home.  Yet CCD (colony collapse disorder) is still a mystery.  Why are bees abandoning their hives?  Bees will often leave when feeling ill, and die elsewhere.  Bees typically won't stay and die at the hive.

Scientists say that without bees we would have a estimated 4 years to live.  The bees pollinate a lot of foods that provide vitamins for us such as apples, avocados, carrots, mango's, lemons, limes, berries, zucchini, celery, squash, onion, of course honey, and much more.  If bees go extinct it would be a devastation to all man kind.  Our local markets would be lose to empty with not enough to go around. 

All bees in the world make up 1/3 of our food, make 6,000 tons of honey, and contributes $525,000,000 to the economy each year.  If bees die out we'd lose more than 2,000 species of edible plants.  We'd also lose many of the delicacies we get from plants such as coffee.  Yes you've heard that right, no bean, no coffee.  Caffeine itself lives in the bean.  Some holidays wouldn't be the same without bees either, Halloween for one.  Without bees our pumpkins wouldn't grow, making it tough to carry on the old American tradition of carving pumpkins with our little ones and baking the seeds.

Buy a book and do some research.  Winter is the best time as you won't be so busy with the bees.  One great resource is ABC & XYZ Bee Culture, this book is more like a beekeeping encyclopedia. You can look up anything you need to know in alphabetical order.  This book is wrote by the root family (root publications.)  Another is The Hive and the Honey Bee.  I recommend this book over any and was published by Dadant N Sons.  Dadant N Sons also publishes the American Bee Journal Magazine.  Both have solid information in both of these choices.  These books can be kind of pricey and I recommend buying them from a beekeeper to help fund the beekeeping organization instead of places like Amazon etc.  You may also want to get with your local beekeeper to find out when their next meeting is.  You can also find lots of good info and advise from them as well.

Beekeeping can be very therapeutic, another good source your get from beekeeping is the honey!  Honey can give you all kinds of benefits.  If you have allergies eating raw local honey can help.  When eating raw local honey you grow a immunity to what your allergic to as the bees make their honey from pollinating on those plants near by.  Honey also boosts your immune system.  Raw organic honey is full of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes which protects your body from bacteria.  Cold and flu symptoms such as cough, sore throat, and congestion are best kept away when treated with honey.  Too boost your immune system take 1-2 spoon fulls of hone to warm water and drink daily.

Honey can even make you lose weight.  For best results you'l want to drink warm water with lemon plus honey on an empty stomach.  The honey removes toxins and fat from the body.  For good benefits add 1 spoon full of honey and lemon juice to warm water and consume before breakfast.  Taking 2-3 spoon fulls of honey on a daily basis is also the best way to cleans the liver.  This same process may also prevent heart disease.  Taking 1-2 spoon fulls daily can reduce your risk at heart attack.  Simply mixing honey with cinnamon can revitalize the arteries and veins of the heart.  This mix can also reduce your cholesterol up to 10%.

Hope you enjoyed this article, now lets get started on beekeeping!