July Newsletter: Beauty of Bees

Bees are one of the oldest forms of animal life, preceding humans on Earth by 10 to 20 million years. Now, honeybees are dying off for a number of reasons which are classified under (CCD) Colony Collapse Disorder, including malnutrition, loss of habitat, disease, climate change, varroa mites, chemicals and pesticides.

On top of these threats, the life of a honey bee is all work and very little play. From the moment it emerges out of its hatching cell to its final flight, a honey bee is hard at work. "Bees communicate location information to their fellows with the famous waggle dance first described by Von Frisch (1974). A bee returning to its hive, if it has found flowers, makes a distinctive wiggle of the abdomen and dances up the side of the honeycomb. The bee's angle from the vertical indicates the angle of the flower away from the sun. A dance 100 degrees to the left of the 12 o'clock position indicates flowers can be found 100 degrees to the left of the sun, as seen from the hive."(1) When they come together, bees make up one unit that pollinates thousands of acres of flowering plants, producing upwards of 100 pounds of honey per year and visits millions of blossoms in its lifetimes. Its life's work is to produce a golden nectar, of which, humans on average consume approximately 1.3 pounds per year each. continue reading>>

The rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis) is the first bumblebee to be designated as an endangered species in the United States (March 21, 2017). Once thriving in 28 states and the District of Columbia, but over the past two decades, the bee’s population has plummeted nearly 90 percent.

Strive to buy local, raw honey that is from hives that are not treated by chemicals. There are beekeepers at nearly every farmer’s market selling their honey and other products. Local businesses might have a homemade-looking jar full of honey for sale at check-out because that local business owner is also a local beekeeper. Click below to find a beekeeper near you.

FIND LOCAL RAW HONEY

Help Save The Bees: S.O.S Bees

Add your voice to thousands of people around the world who want to protect the bees by banning bee-killing pesticides and unsustainable industrial agriculture and promoting ecological farming. The more people who sign, the more it influences the governments and companies who can act to save the bees.

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The mission of the Massachusetts Beekeepers Association is to promote education in matters relating to honeybees and beekeeping, to assist its affiliate associations in promoting successful beekeeping in the state of Massachusetts, to foster congeniality among the state’s beekeepers, to perform all other acts appropriate to an organization in serving its members and to protect and foster the honeybee’s beneficial use in the state of Massachusetts.

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National Honey Board und research projects designed to find new and improved uses for honey in foods and other products. In addition, NHB funds programs to educate chefs on the use of honey. The NHB allocates 5 percent of anticipated revenue each year to bee health research on issues like Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and external factors affecting honeybees. Its site provides recipes and industry news.

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