Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to cloudy skies after midnight. Low 61F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to cloudy skies after midnight. Low 61F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.

I stopped to see a friend of mine the other day.

His employees were all over him — and he has thousands of employees. But they never complain about working conditions or even ask for a raise. Heck, they only take a day off when it’s too cold to work outside.

Ok, enough of this nonsense: his employees are bees. He produces honey from dozens of beehives.

Did you know that honey never spoils? Archeologists have found containers of honey in the great pyramids of Egypt that are over 4,000 years old, and it was still good.

Bees are essential to our lives. They are the great pollinators and are responsible for the majority of our fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Without bees, the produce sections in our grocery stores would be empty. Setting aside their importance, bees are amazing insects.

The noise you hear when they buzz around you is caused by the beating of their wings. A honey bee beats its wings over 11,000 times a minute and can fly at speeds up to twenty miles an hour. So no matter how you hard you try, you can’t out run them. They communicate with each other through a series of dance moves.

You’ve heard the expression about being as busy as a bee. A hive of bees will fly over 55,000 miles to make a pound of honey and can produce 100 pounds a year.

The honey bee is the only insect that makes a food that people can eat. The flavor of their honey depends on the time of year and the flowers where they gather the pollen.

Spring honey is like the first run of maple syrup. It’s lighter in color and flavor. Summer honey, meanwhile, is darker and has a sweeter flavor. Fall honey is dark and stronger. It’s better for cooking than eating.

Scientists say that eating honey makes you smarter because it contains an antioxidant that improves brain function.

A honey bee, like other insects, has six legs, but it differs because it has five eyes. As we all know, they have yellow and brown horizontal stripes.

Every bee in a hive will have the same coloration. I guess that’s passed down from the queen. Every hive has a queen. She will lay over 3,000 eggs a day. This is necessary because the average life span of a worker bee is only five to seven weeks.

My daughter called one morning. She said there was a huge ball of bees on one of the trees in her yard. This is called a swarm and happens when the hive becomes overcrowded, resources are scarce, and the colony’s health is at risk. I called my friend, and he brought over a new hive. The colony of bees moved in before the day was out.

Did you know that only a female bee can sting? When I visited my buddy there were several bees crawling on his arms and neck, yet they never stung him. Why? He has been working with bees his entire life and has no fear of them. Bees will attack or sting when they feel threatened or sense the hormone that we give off when we’re scared.

Bees today are in danger. Their numbers are declining due to invasive plants, pesticides, habitat loss, and parasites. There is a mite that attacks the bees and a fungus that disrupts that bee’s digestive system.

Some also blame it on climate change, but that’s debatable. After all, they blame everything on global warming. Maybe they should smarten up by eating more honey.

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