Facts about Beekeeping

Lots of the nation’s crops would not exist minus the honey bee at bloom time.

As honey bees gather pollen and nectar for success, they pollinate crops such apples, cranberries, melons and broccoli. Some crops, including blueberries and cherries, are 90-percent dependent on honey bee pollination; one-crop, almonds, depends totally in the honey bee for pollination at bloom time.

For all other people, crop yield and quality is greatly decreased without honey-bee pollination. In reality, a 1999 Cornell University study documented that the share created by managed honey bees hired by U.S. crop growers to pollinate plants amounted to just over $14.6 billion.

Each year US farmers and growers consistently feed more and more people utilizing less land. They produce an abundance of food that is wholesome and safe. Honey bees are particularly much an integral part of this modern-day farming success story. It’s estimated there are about 2.4 million colonies in the U.S. these days, two-thirds that travel the country every year pollinating plants and making honey and beeswax. Several million colonies are utilized each year in California simply to pollinate the state’s almond crop!

The $14.6 billion share produced by managed honey bees comes in the form of increased yields and superior high quality plants for growers and United states consumers — a wholesome beekeeping business is invaluable to a healthy and balanced U.S. farming economy.