Certainly at the top of the list is that honey bees enhance the productivity of our gardens, our farms, and the wild plants everywhere due to their pollinat- ing behaviors. Thus both plants benefit and can set the seeds of their next generation.
Meanwhile, the honey bee helps herself to the sweet and nutritious rewards offered by the flowers. These rewards are used to feed the young and sustain the honey bee colony over the winter. What a grand relationship. Both flow- ers and bees, and even beekeepers benefit.
Beekeepers and honey bees have a similar sort of arrangement. Honey bees, driven by instinct to gather as much of nature’s bounty as possible, often store far more than they can ever use. This they share with their keepers, who in turn provide home and hearth, safety and protection for the colony, their queen and their future.
And beekeepers are learning the many advantages of growing their own. Beekeepers are producing their own queens, selected to thrive in their own backyards, chosen to grow where the beekeeper lives. These are the bees of the future. This is beekeeping at its best.
