Day Five- For the Love of Honeybees

Busy Buzzing Bee

  
       I know it seems a bit odd that I would be writing about honeybees as something I consider a blessing. And perhaps some readers will skip over Day Five because it's about a bug. An insect.
       But before you go, let me share a little bit about honeybees and why I'm grateful for them. (As long as they don't sting my bare feet. :)

      Fact One: Honeybees pollinate orchards, flowers, and crops. They seek out pollen, spreading it flower to flower, almost like they're made to assist in the whole pollination process. :)
      This is an important job because plants need help. If a little bumble bee wasn't buzzing around, happily doing her job, collecting pollen, then plants would have a difficult time fertilizing. As she works, some of the pollen she's carrying around falls off her hairy body and onto other flowers. Then pollination occurs.
      Other insects assist in pollination, but bees...they're something special because they're responsible for such a huge percentage of plants being fertilized.

     Fact Two: In the United States, more than 100 agricultural crops are pollinated by bees, such as watermelons and apples. If a bee didn't pollinate an apple blossom, it would simply wither up and die. Just the thought of no more apple pie makes me grateful for these tiny creatures.

    Fact Three: They make honey. I love honey. It taste great and local honey is so good for you. Humans have collected honey for centuries, using it to sweeten foods and drinks. The flavor of honey is affected by the type of nectar collected, which means you have familiar types such as orange blossom, wildflower, or clover but can also have more exotic sounding flavors like thyme and dandelion.

  Fact Four: Some scientists have estimated that bees are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat. Wow. It's incredible and means we owe them more than just a pat on the back.   

  So I have to say on this journey of faith that we are taken care of. Because as much as we like to think ourselves the smartest creatures on this planet, we still depend on the smallest of creatures to survive. I think next time I take a bite of food, I'll give thanks for the buzzing bee that worked so hard to bring it to me.