Honeybee Habitats
Honeybees are a very important insect to our ecosystem and growing food. Honeybees are becoming endangered due to the increased hive collapses. They keep dying at record rates, putting our food supply at serious risk.
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Pesticides: These chemicals are designed, of course, to kill insects. But some systemic varieties—specifically neonicotinoids—are worse for bees than others.
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Loss of habitat: As rural areas become urban, the patches of green space that remain are often stripped of all weeds and their flowers, which bees rely on for food.
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Climate change: Unusually warm winters have caused plants to shift their schedules. When bees come out of hibernation, the flowers they need to feed on have already bloomed and died.
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Disease: Pathogens carried by mites weaken bees, which makes them more susceptible to pesticide poisoning. On the flip side, if bees are already weakened by pesticides, they’re more vulnerable to disease.
It is hard to imagine our world without pollinators to help grow our food supply. We are all connected to each other. It is the true life cycle. We need honeybees and they need us.
You can help honeybees pollinate your food and to help prevent the extinction of the honeybee.
HEALTH BENEFITS OF RAW HONEY
Honey naturally contains nutrients and enzymes that have a variety of health benefits and medical uses.
Manufacturers process most of the honey you find in grocery stores. Heating the honey helps improve the color and texture, and removes any unwanted crystallization. Many of the beneficial antioxidants and bacteria are also removed or destroyed in the process.
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Raw honey contains antioxidants called phenolic compounds. Some types of honey have as many antioxidants as fruits and vegetables. Antioxidants help to protect your body from cell damage due to free radicals.
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Free radicals contribute to the aging process and may also contribute to the development of chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease.
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Raw honey can kill unwanted bacteria and fungus. It naturally contains hydrogen peroxide, an antiseptic. The effectiveness of honey as an antibacterial or antifungal depends on the type of honey.
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Have a cold? Try a spoonful of honey. Honey is an old sore throat remedy. Try adding it to hot tea with lemon. It also works as a cough suppressant.
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In addition to beneficial bacteria and nutrients, raw honey can also carry harmful bacteria such as botulism. This is particularly dangerous for babies, so you should never feed raw honey to babies less than a year old. Botulism causes symptoms similar to food poisoning (e.g. nausea, vomiting, fever) in adults. See your doctor if you experience any of these symptoms after eating raw honey.
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Some people consider local honey to be a good natural treatment for seasonal allergies. Local honey is produced near where you live.
There are many health benefits to local raw honey. Raw honey crystallizes naturally. Honey never goes bad. If it crystallizes place it in warm water or sit the bottle in a window and let the sun warm it.
DO NOT microwave the honey. Microwaving will kill all the healthy vitamins and enzymes in the honey.
Order local raw honey from Smith's Rustic Ranch, LLC.
Gardens & Pollinating Plants
Honeybees are attracted to flowers and vegetables. Planting a variety of pollinating plants in your garden will provide pollen for the bees and other pollinating insects. Plants that honeybees love are
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Broccoli
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Clover
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Strawberries
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Trees
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Sunflowers (pollinating)
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Wildflowers
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Crocus, hyacinth, borage, calendula, and wild lilac provide enticing spring blooms.
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Bees feast on bee balm, cosmos, echinacea, snapdragons foxglove, and hosta in the summer.
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For fall, zinnias, sedum, asters, witch hazel and goldenrod are late bloomers that will tempt foragers.
Plant at least three different types of flowers in your bee garden to ensure blooms through as many seasons as possible. This will provide bees and other pollinators with a constant source of food. Talk to a local greenhouse or go online to find pollinating plants for specific insects and birds.
Avoid using herbicides or pesticides in the bee garden. They not only can be toxic to bees but also are best not introduced to children or adults that visit your garden. Ladybugs, spiders, and praying mantises will naturally keep pest populations in check.
Bees need a place to get fresh, clean water. Fill a shallow container of water with pebbles or twigs for the bees to land on while drinking. Make sure to maintain the container full of fresh water to ensure that they know they can return to the same spot every day.
We need to provide honeybee habitats to help these pollinators from being on the endangered list.
Honeybees are a very important part to our circle of life and play an important part in providing food for humans.
Become a beekeeper or at least provide habitats for nature. Nature depends on us to survive.
Smith's Rustic Ranch, LLC and The Beekeepers of Indiana will assist you mentoring and providing education about honeybees. Contact us!
Trees & Field Pollination
Smith's Rustic Ranch, LLC provides pollination services for orchards and other areas that would like to increase fruit production. Fruit trees and flowering trees provide essential pollen for honeybees.
Strawberry fields provide pollen in the spring that is a great way to get the honeybees going. When the nectar starts flowing in the spring, the queen starts laying eggs and the hive grows. Worker honeybees collect the pollen and bring it back to the hive to store.
It take a hard working team to provide for the honeybee hive. They work like an airport flying back and forth collecting pollen and nectar.
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A honeybee only lives 21 days
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It takes 500 honeybees traveling over 55,000 miles, making 10,000,000 foraging trips to gather enough nectar to make a single pound of honey.
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A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.
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The average worker bee produces about 1/12th teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
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A honey bee can fly for up to six miles, and as fast as 15 miles per hour.
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Honey Bees have 2 stomachs.
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Honey Bees can not see the color white. That is why it is good to wear white in the summer and why Bee suits are always white!
There are so many interesting things about honeybees to learn. The honeybee is part of our ecosystem and provide food production for humans. They need us as much as we need them and other pollinating insects.
Become a beekeeper! The Beekeepers of Indiana have a Bee School every year along with educational courses/seminars and local clubs.