What good are a few bees?

  A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my dismay over folks using toxic sprays or powders on flowering plants.  I was quite distraught that the chemicals of choice were ones that would kill honeybees. After I wrote my say on the matter, I came in contact with a few people that read that page.  They were astounded that I would even dare to "attack" their methods of gardening.  "What are a few bees when it means that my plants will be bug-free?"  they queried.  Going even further a few made the comment "What good are honeybees anyway?  I can always buy honey from the grocery store."  Hmmm. Once again, I am saddened.  What good are honeybees?  Oh, my word!

  Well, I will tell you. Those pretty little flowers that you are trying to "de-bug" will no longer exist if you keep killing the bees. Little do some folks realize or little do they care at the moment, but honeybees pollinate about eighty percent of our flowering crops, both ornamental and food crops. This makes up about a third of our diets.  Everything from fruit to veggies are "flowering crops". Without the bees' pollinating habits, the crops cannot reproduce and will eventually die out.  This causes problems even for you folks who eat a ton of meat as without the crops (think grain), there will be little feed for cattle, hogs and poultry.  Pretty soon humans will be reduced to eating a bunch of lab-created junk.  How long will it take before we die out as well?  

   Not only do we depend on the honeybees for their habit of pollinating flowers but, also for their delicious and nutritious honey! (And, sorry folks, without bees, there will be no honey on the shelves of the grocery store!)  I, myself, use probably a two dozen quarts of local honey a year.  There is a kind man not far from the Bayou who sells his honey.  Another benefit of keeping our honeybees healthy is the fact that medical research has proven that a number of diseases and disorders can be treated with honey and/or bee venom.

  So, if you have any doubts about protecting the honeybee, I suggest that you start now to reorganize your ideas on food consumption and medical treatments.  Perhaps a water diet would suit you!  I am quite sure you will do well with that!  (Especially, since the same toxins that are killing our honeybees are also polluting the world's water supply.) In the meantime, do not tell me that honeybees are not important!  If you ask me, right now they are far higher on my list of importance than folks who are too lazy to find a natural method of ridding the garden of pests and insist on poisoning the earth.