The truly amazing honeybee!

Good Day Readers:

Caught a fascinating discussion yesterday about honeybees on CBC Radio's weekly morning show The Current with Anna Maria Tremonti.

Her guest was noted American award-winning conservation scientist, best selling author and television nature documentary host Dr. Reese Halter.
Its been estimated about 30% of the food we eat results from the pollination of honeybees yet in the past 3-years over 50 billion have perished yet no one knows why. Pesticides, mites, serious disease, cellular microwave transmission lines, drought have been some of the theories put forward. The devastation has been so acute world-wide it has given rise to the term "colony collapse disorder."

Honeybees are truly amazing creatures right up there with the monarch butterfly. But one small example - it takes 12 forager bees each flying about 12 hours a combined total of 60,000 miles to produce 1 teaspoon of honey containing 60 calories and which Dr. Halter describes as rocket fuel. Its properties are legendary everything from a shelf life of approximately 100 years to a sugar substitute for diabetics to taking a small quantity before going to bed at night to help you sleep better.

The lifespan of a honeybee is about 6-weeks.

Sincerely,

Clare L. Pieuk

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The Incomparable Honeybee & the Economics of Pollination
RMB Manifestos
By Reese Halter

From Dr. Reese Halter comes a remarkable, concise account of the honeybees that have profoundly shaped our planet for the past 110 million years. They are the most important group of flower-visiting animals, pollinating more multi-billion-dollar crops and plants than any other living group. Since prehistoric times humans and honeybees have been inextricably linked. This book is rich with interesting and humbling facts: bees can count, they can vote, and honey has potent medicinal properties, able to work as an anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, even an antiseptic. The fate of the bees, whose numbers have been beleaguered most recently by colony collapse disorder, lies firmly in the hands of humankind. As such, it is our job to ensure their health, protect the habitats within which they live and communicate to others the vital link that human society shares with the remarkable honeybee.

Dr. Reese Halter is an award-winning conservation biologist, syndicated science writer, TV host and father. He is a sought-after public speaker and founder of the international conservation institute Global Forest Science, through which he regularly visits schools and encourages children worldwide to embrace conservation, science exploration and learning. Dr. Reese lives in Los Angeles, California, and can be contacted through www.DrReese.com. (Published by Calgary-based Rocky Mountain Books)