Bees are amazing creatures. They nourish the environment and produce delicious raw honey. Our honey farm loves bees so much that we’ve put together ten undeniable reasons you should love them too! Let’s start with the obvious:
1. They Make Amazing Honey
We all know that honey is delicious, but there are so many benefits that go beyond its yummy taste. Raw honey contains nutrients like antioxidants, amino acids, and a plethora of vitamins. So, spread some on your morning toast and feel good about it!
Raw honey is also an environmentally friendly sweetener. Unlike products like corn syrup or refined sugar that require fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation systems, raw honey is a byproduct of plants—no chemicals needed.
Buying local also keeps transportation to a minimum. The further food travels, the larger the environmental impact of the product.
2. They Pollinate Crops
We rely on bees to pollinate tons of delicious fruits and vegetables that we eat every day. As bees visit plants looking for nectar, they pick up and deposit pollen. This pollination allows crops, from apples to cauliflower, to flourish! Without visits from bees, some of these plants would cease to exist.
3. They Produce Beeswax
Beeswax is another excellent product made by bees. In a hive, beeswax is used to form the recognizable comb-like structures that serve as honey storage. When we harvest raw honey from the hive, we are also able to collect a little bit of wax at the same time, which we turn into soothing beeswax candles.
4. They Love To Dance
When a bee finds a lovely patch of nectar-rich flowers, it heads back to the hive to share the good news with the rest of the colony. Since bees can’t talk, they perform a waggle dance to communicate where the flowers are located. The direction the bee is facing and the length of the dance tell the workers how to get there.
How can you not love little dancing bees?
5. They Are Hard Workers
There’s a reason why the term “busy like a bee” exists. Bees are always doing something to help the colony thrive, whether it be gathering nectar, raising their young, forming honeycomb, or protecting the hive. Bees are always keeping busy and working hard.
6. They Are Smart
Bees have a brain the size of a sesame seed, so it’s surprising how intelligent they are. In one experiment at the Queen Mary University of London, bees were shown that moving a ball into a particular spot gave them a reward of sugar water. The bees learned the connection between moving the ball into place and earning a reward. This lead to bees repeating the behaviour.
Not only did the bees learn, but when new bees saw the trained bees moving the balls and earning rewards, they started doing the same thing! The bees were teaching and learning from each other.
Bees are also the first invertebrates to understand the concept of zero, meaning they understand nothing as a quantity. This puts them on an elite list of animals that includes primates and dolphins. With such small, yet high-functioning brains, bees might lead to future advances in A.I. technologies.
7. They Are Excellent Engineers
Have you ever wondered why bees use hexagons instead of, say, circles to store their honey?
It seems that bees have a fundamental understanding of engineering, and they know that a hexagon is a stable and efficient shape for their hives. Circles would leave gaps between the honeycomb. Squares and triangles fit together but aren’t the best mix of storage space and strength. Hexagons, on the other hand, use the least amount of material to hold the most weight. It seems as though all bees graduate with an honorary engineering degree!
8. They Create Beautiful Surroundings
From spring to the fall, bees help flowers prosper. Fields of beautiful wildflowers and meadows rich with colour all burst with life, year after year, thanks to pollinators like bees. Magnificent and natural gardens would not exist without the help of our buzzing friends.
9. They Are Easy-going
While some species of bees are more aggressive than others, most are actually quite docile. When foraging, bees will pay you little interest, and if they do, they’ll move on once they’ve figured out you’re not a flower. A green metallic sweat bee, often confused with a housefly, is attracted to perspiration and might land on your arm for a quick drink. Gently brush them away, and you have no need to worry.
Bees often get a bad rap as they look similar to their more aggressive relatives, wasps and hornets. But bees, especially of the honey variety, are quite friendly.
10. They Are Cute
Just look at this little gal! Bees are cute, and that’s one reason we love them.
That’s our honey farm’s list of ten undeniable reasons to love bees! Do you agree with our list? Did we miss anything? Let us know why you love bees in the comments below or on Facebook!