Twelve Reasons NOT to be Afraid of Honey Bees

by Guest bloggers: Ashley & Lloyd Hardrick
of Honey Bee Goode Apiaries

Listen to his podcast HERE

Honey bees are essential to plant crop pollination, and they have been pollinating flowers for millions of years. However, our favorite insect is under threat and their populations are declining. Honey Bee Goode Apiaries is a bee farming company located in South Fulton Atlanta, carrying out research to meet the needs of urban, minority, backyard, and veteran farmers; educators, and corporations, to ensure educational impact and agricultural sustainability through honey bees. We want to educate and create practices that will help towards increased honey bee life expectancy.
So this holiday season we are giving you…

Twelve reasons NOT to be afraid of honey bees

– Twelve –

Most peoples fears of ” bees” are fueled by lack of knowledge or by fear of knowing someone that was stung by a honey bee or allergic to honey bee stings.

– Eleven – 

What makes honey bees so amazing is that the incredibly deep ingrained relationship that they have with flowers. The spread of flowering plants across the world coincided with the appearance of the first bees, and together these two very different life forms each facilitate the diversification of the other.

– Ten –

Honey Bees gave our ancestors their first condiment, which is HONEY

– Nine – 

Honey is good source of antioxidants because it contains an array of plant chemicals that act as antioxidants. Honey also has Antibacterial properties, which helps in healing wounds, also helps digestive issues and honey soothes a sore throat.

– Eight – 

For many centuries a honey bee sting venom has been used for different practices, one is Bee venom therapy, whch helps relieve pain from arthritis. Other benefits include, but there is still research being done today; helping with allergies.treating immune and neurological conditions. regulate thyroid functions. and reduce gingivitis and plaque.

– Seven – 

Honey Bees are the only insect that produce food in a large quantity for human consumption.

– Six – 

The common honey bee offers us some natural super foods with healing health benefits. Bee pollen has been used traditionally as an anti-aging food, and an energy food. A little known history fact, bee pollen has been used by Olympic athletes to improve their performance. Royal jelly has also been shown to prevent the cholesterol-elevating effect of nicotine, and has been shown to lower cholesterol. Propolis has also demonstrated antiviral properties, including the common cold with acute or chronic symptoms, and decrease and suppression of the viruses and other microbes in the upper airways. Propolis also has promising antiviral properties against herpes viruses.

– Five – 

There would not be “honeymoon” without honey bees. The word “honeymoon” comes from the ancient traditional ritual of supplying a newly married couple with a month’s supply of honey wine in order to assure happiness and fertility.

– Four – 

Wasps are NOT bees. Bees are vegetarians, collecting pollen and nectar for their young. Wasps are carnivores, and some species can be very aggressive. Bees are mostly NON-AGGRESSIVE.

– Three – 

Honey bee workers can sting other insects repeatedly. However, barbs in their stingers get caught in the skin of humans because of our thick skin. Removing a bees stinger is fatal to the bee, so she dies. Please Consult with your doctor about having an allergic reaction to honey bee stings.

– Two – 

Beeswax is produced from glands in the abdomen of honey bees. The wax is produced by young bees and then scraped off their bodies, chewed and mixed with bee saliva.The wax also helps safely store honey produced by the bees. Beeswax has non-allergenic properties that can make it a useful skin protectant from a multitude of airborne allergies. It can also help slow down the dispersal of medication in the body.

– One – 

Every third mouthful of food is produced by honey bees. Flowering plants rely on honey bees for pollination so that they can produce fruit and seeds. Without bees pollinating these plants, there would not be very many fruits or vegetables to eat.

(This includes: apples, mangos, plums, peaches, nectarines, guavas, pomegranates, pears, okra, strawberries, onions, cashews, apricots, allspice, avocados, kidney beans, green beans, cherries, celery, coffee, walnut, cotton, acerola (used in Vitamin C supplements), macadamia nuts, sunflower oil, lemons, buckwheat, figs, fennel, limes, carrots, palm oil, cucumber, hazelnut, cantaloupe, coriander, watermelon, coconut, tangerines, beets, mustard seed, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, turnips, chili peppers, red peppers, bell peppers, green peppers, papaya, sesame, eggplant, raspberries, blackberries, clover, cocoa, black eyed peas, vanilla, cranberries, tomatoes, and grapes.)

 
So what can you do to help honey bees?  We as humans play a big role in making sure that the life expectancy of honey bees succeed, one way of doing that is by becoming a beekeeper yourself. If you aren’t to fond on becoming a beekeeper, consider getting a bee hive placed on your land. If this is not for you either, you can grow a small garden, or give to your local beekeeper because its worth reminding to the world that honey bees are important.

About this author:

Lloyd served in the U.S. Army for 10 years. After the army, he became a certified beekeeper and in 2015 he and his wife Ashley founded their beekeeping company. Honey Bee Goode Apiaries, is not just about bees and honey, they specialize in developing relationships with urban farmers and teaching in the local communities about the relationship between bees, flowers, and food.
Honey Bee Goode Apiaries was one of the Farmer Veteran Coalition’s 2018 Fellowship Fund Grant recipients. Honey Bee Good plants their hives on urban farms throughout their community.  Lloyd was the recipient of a $1000 Tractor Supply donation, through the Veteran Coalition’s program that offers assistance to veterans in the early stages of their farming operations.

 How to reach Honey Bee Goode Apiaries: 

Website:  Honeybeegoode.net 

Instagram: @honeybeegoodeapiaries 

Facebook: @hbeegoodeapiaries

GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/saveabee (Saving bees and creating natural safe havens around the community)