The Importance of Honeybees

"It's a domino effect, without one you don't have the others." Others meaning fruits, vegetables and even some animals. And this honey producing insect isn't just disappearing around Central New York, it's slowly becoming a global problem.

            Bee keeper Mindy Bradley says, "Bees sustain life, three quarters of all foods that Americans or anybody in the world eat comes from pollination from bees and bees can pollenate better than any other insect because of the size and shape of their body they can get into the nectar and the other parts of a plant and pollenating to do the right things."

            Mindy has been studying bees for over six years now and she says most people overlook the importance of honeybees and she says that includes many in government as well.

            Bradley added, "They don't think about them. They don't realize how important they are to them. It's not like with maple syrup there's a huge industry with it. Everyone knows you tap the tree you drill the hole, you cook it down, 40 gallons to a gallon, that's that. With honeybees even the industry there's like two magazines, there's like three companies you can buy the stuff from and other than that you've got to depend on your closest bee keeping neighbor to help you."

            Dry weather is often disastrous for farmers and that's no different for bee keepers. And Mindy says this season has been the hardest yet. "It's been extremely tough, I mean I'm only a second year bee keeper but from what I've heard also in this area of the state it's been very hard because everything has been so dry. August is usually the slowest month, who knows with the way everything is blooming different but I'm hoping."