To honey or not to honey & the importance of bees

Anyone who has a toddler knows that when they find a movie they like that's it. That movie will be playing every chance they get! Right now that movie is the bee movie. Which I'm kinda loving cause first it's adorable and second it has a great message being that all life has value. Simple and beautiful.

Photo taken my spectacular partner and incredible photographer Hive account@kenistyles

If got me thinking about a few things. One being this whole honey issue. Is it really harming bees? And the other thing is about the importance of bees. Just how valuable are they?

Picking wild blackberries in the beautiful English countryside, also taken by Hive account@kenistyles

So of course I turned to the internet to learn more so I could finally make a decision and what I learned was like WOW!

Wild nuts and greens, photo courtesy of the Hive account@kenistyles yet again

Ok let's talk about honey and wax. Apparently like every other area of life there are good and bad beekeepers. Yikes! Bad ones try to make bees produce more than what is possible, thus hurting bees and actually killing some of them off in the process. And good ones want to take care of the bee colonies. They know that the bees make honey because they need the honey and wax to survive. However good beekeepers also know that bees make a surplus and so you can harvest some of the honey and wax regularly without harming the bees. They are actually helping the bees by supporting the colonies. So I guess the answer for me is to chose ethically responsible companies to buy my honey from.

Apple tree dropping buckets of fruit all over the ground

Now that I finally have my honey question figured out onto the bigger question. How important are bees? After a bit more googling to my surprise I have found out that if bees were to all die off we would have about 4 years till we all died off with them! Wait what!? Yikes! Intense right!? Bees are responsible for the majority of the worlds crop pollination and without them a good percent of the worlds foods would not exist. At least all the foods that the bees pollinate would be lost and with them goes all the creatures that eat those foods.

Tiny wild strawberries growing up in the mountains

After all this I think it's safe to say that the majority of us take these little winged friends for granted. But no more. Well not in this house anymore at least. I mean we already always try to save each little critter that finds it's way in here but now I think we have a deeper appreciation. A deeper appreciation of all living things and all the food we put in our mouths.

Big basket of organic avocados, taken of course by Hive account@kenistyles

"I'm just saying all life has value! You don't know what he's capable of feeling!" The bee movie