Why You Should Have Honey Bees in Your Garden

by: Gavin Prumatico

Honey bees are a very important pollinator in your garden! Without bees, we would not have a large crop of fruits and vegetables. Bees pollinate 1/3 of our food, isn’t that crazy! I personally have three honey bee hives and I am a certified beekeeper by the state. I keep them close to my garden and they pollinate my flowers, herbs, vegetables, citrus trees, etc.

Not only do honey bees provide a calming presence but they are very busy workers. Without a honey bee pollinating your plants you would have to give a chance for the wind to fertilize your vegetation. Wind pollination is very uncommon and only happens around 12% of the time. I myself am so glad I have my three hives because without them I would not have any vegetables. I would suggest getting two beehives because when you first start out something may go wrong with one of the hives. you still have the second hive you can use to help the first hive if something goes wrong.

As the honey bees cross-pollinate, your garden will end up with more flowers. This happens because pollination is needed in order for flowers to produce seeds. Bees are one of nature’s best pollinators! Can you believe one single flower pollinates 300 million flowers a day! That’s a lot of flowers!

Honey bees have been disappearing in large numbers for many years. Every year we lose about 30% of honey bees in the world. If you want to get into beekeeping I have to say that the beekeeping communities are the most helpful and kind people you will ever meet! I 100% recommend that you should become a beekeeper to these little fascinating creatures! I am not going to lie, beekeeping is an expensive hobby but it is completely worth it!

The first year of beekeeping is all about learning from your mistakes and getting a general understanding of the care of honey bees. The second-year is the year you get to collect your honey. The honey can not be harvested in the first year because they need it to survive the upcoming winter.  But when you do your daily checkups in the hive there may be some beeswax out of place. For example under one of the frames. Then you may harvest it to make products (lip balm, candles, and etc.) or you can harvest it and use it as decoration!

Last but not least honey bees are very friendly. They only sting when they feel very threatened! So make sure to be calm and they will usually reflect that behavior to you!

If you have any questions or concerns about anything please feel free to email me at 250223@northwarren.org! My name is Gavin Prumatico. Have a great rest of your day!