Bees-honey or not

When I see honey bees in the yard, I imagine they are visiting from the hives that are about a mile from my house. The honey man assures me its quite likely his bees are visiting my trees. This got me thinking about the amazing nature of honey.

This gallon of honey is roughly the life's work of 9216 bees. To make it they flew more than 660,000 miles and visited more than 24 million flowers. All this at about 15 miles per hour. The work involved is nearly incomprehensible to me. Whenever I drink my tea or eat my strawberry jam, sweetened with honey, I feel deeply appreciative and privileged.

A better pollinator than honey bees, our native Orchard Mason Bees produce no honey. They are solitary bees, which nest close together. Males live only long enough to mate. Females live only long enough to mate, and reproduce. The female lays her eggs in tubular shaped holes, along with a dollop of pollen and nectar, all sealed with mud. The eggs slowly transform over the summer into mature bees, which then wait until spring to emerge. 

To read more about these bees, which are native to almost all 50 states and Canada west of the Rocky Mountains, check out Brian Grifin's book "The Orchard Mason Bee". And consider letting your dandelions grow. My bees get loads of pollen from the dandelions which litter my yard. Even I enjoy eating the flowers.