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The Honey Bee as a Pollinator
The honey bee is a pollinator; not the best one or the first one out in the morning, but with a summertime population of more than 50,000 or 60,000 in one hive, and half of them working at gathering, she can beat any other insect.

Pollen is one of the two foods that the honey bee requires. It is the protein in the bee’s diet, and honey is the carbohydrate.

Bees gather nectar and pollen from flowers for food for their own use. In the process, they pollinate hundreds of different kinds of plants, among which are many commercial crop plants. Recent studies indicate that about 90 crops in the United States depend upon bees, at least to some extent, for pollination.*

Estimates of the value of bee-pollinated crops vary widely. If considering their value to be the fruits, vegetables and seeds resulting directly from bee pollination, plus the value of crops grown from bee-pollinated seeds in the United States, we have a total value in the multi-billions of dollars. Ramifications can be carried beyond the crop that results directly from pollination. For instance, bee-pollinated alfalfa seed is in itself a valuable commodity, but alfalfa seed also produces hay, which, in turn, produces meat and milk.

Pollination becomes an essential link in a chain of events of great significance to our agricultural economy. Bee pollination of plants also goes on in nature. Many hundreds of wild flowers, weeds, trees and other non-crop plants are bee-pollinated and the whole complex process is so intertwined in nature’s web that a serious estimation of value is almost impossible. Without this total contribution by bees, we would certainly live in a very different, less productive and less interesting world.

Robert Duxbury, Silk Ear Farm
Silk Ear Farm has been keeping honey bees in Rappahannock County since 1996 — in an all-natural process that is an integral part of our food system.

*E.C. Martin, Ph.D.

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