All About Bees and Honey

Ever wonder about the secret lives of bees and the golden elixir they produce? Dive into the world of these tiny, tireless workers and discover how they create honey, nature's sweetest treasure. Bees are more fascinating than we ever imagined. Join us and get ready to be captivated.

Shownotes: yournutritionprofs.com

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Transcript

Bees, tiny yet mighty insects, play a crucial role in our ecosystem, particularly through their production of honey. This golden elixir is not just a sweet treat; it's a testament to the intricate and industrious lives of bees. Exploring the world of bees and honey reveals a fascinating blend of biology, ecology, and a glimpse into one of nature's most remarkable phenomena.

M: I’m Professor Megan 

S: and I’m Professor Susan, and we’re

Both: Your Nutrition Profs!

M: We are registered dietitians and college professors who have taught more than 10,000 students about health and nutrition. We have answered a LOT of questions about nutrition over the years – 

S: Some questions we get asked every year and some are rarely asked but very interesting.

M: We’re here to share our answers to these common (and uncommon) nutrition questions with you.

S: So bring your curiosity and let’s get started. 

Both: Welcome to our class!

Buzzing sounds

S: Do you hear that buzzing? 

M: I do. It sounds like bees.

S: It is bees! They’re the bees of a friend of mine, Jane Davis. She’s an amateur beekeeper and she was gracious enough to meet with me and to talk all about these industrious insects.

M: You know, bees are so amazing! 

S: They really are, and I don’t think I fully appreciated them until I met bees and talked to a beekeeper.

M: And June is National Pollinators Month – the perfect time to talk about them.

So let’s start with a little background on bees…

S: Well, humans and bees have had a close relationship for thousands of years, but bees have actually been around for at least 120 million years!

M: 120 million! 

S: Yeah, they’ve found bees in fossil records going back at least that far... that’s the early Cretaceous period.

M: The cretaceous period– when dinosaurs ruled the world!

S: Right. So here’s a little ancient history about when bees actually evolved. 140 million years ago there were no flowers on the earth. Sad…

M: Sad… 

S: The only plants were things like ferns and other non-flowering plants and the climate was a little warmer and more humid than it is now. 

M: As part of evolution, plants began to produce flowers which contained nectar and pollen. Since plants are stationary, these flowers needed a friend to help them reproduce – what’s called a pollinator – and bees were born! 

S: Bees share a common ancestor with wasps called a proto-bee. It had a furry thorax which all bees still have. 

M: By 120 million years ago there was a massive explosion of bees and flowering plants. This plant-pollinator interaction changed much of the planet’s ecosystem. Flowers became more colorful to attract bees because they have relatively poor eyesight.

S: And bees evolved to be better pollinators – they got hairier legs and bodies so that more pollen would stick to them, and their tongues got longer so that they could get at the nectar more easily. 

M: At the end of the Cretaceous period was a mass extinction event. The dinosaurs and most other life were gone…. But bees survived and they helped the remaining flowering plants recover and thrive.

S: Bees really are awesome!

M: Now there are about 5,000 species of flowering plants – and all require pollination. 

S: So flowers need bees, and bees need flowers!

M: Exactly! Bees need flowers because it’s how they make their food – honey. And humans like honey too!

S: I know I do!

M: Well you’re not alone. There is evidence of wild honey gathering by humans in cave drawings that are 13,000 years old. But the first known evidence of actual beekeeping was found on a cave drawing in Spain from 9,000 years ago.

S: But beekeeping really got going though in Egypt about 4000 years ago. Egyptians used honey as a sweetener, as an ingredient in embalming fluid, and as a gift to the gods. They thought bees represented the soul and could deliver messages from gods to man.

M: The Greeks and Romans revered bees too. They also used honey as food, and as a gift to the gods, and even as medicine. The Romans became really adept at beekeeping and used not only the honey but also the beeswax to make things like candles.

S: The industrious bee appears frequently in mythology. It was used as a symbol of the Greek goddess Artemis who the Romans called Diana. She was the goddess of animals, vegetation, and childbirth and the favorite Goddess in rural areas.

M: It’s even said that when the philosopher Plato was in his cradle a swarm of bees landed around his mouth – a good sign apparently. And Pythagorus believed that the souls of the wise and ingenious passed into the bodies of bees. 

S: The Celts and Saxons believed bees were winged messengers between worlds. Pope Urban VIII had a bee on his flag because, apparently, a swarm of bees flew into the Vatican just as he was being chosen in 1623. 

M: Wow…

S: Not only that, Napoleon had 3 bees on the flag he designed for the island of Elba in 1814. 

M: Bees have been a symbol of industry and a strong work ethic, power, obedience, trust, and fertility. The bee is even a symbol for the god Cupid… of Valentine’s Day fame!

S: That’s really interesting. Well bees have appeared in texts from all the world’s major religions including the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, and texts from Hinduism. 

M: Let’s celebrate these bees! 

S: Go bees! 

M: Especially the honey bee since it’s the only insect that makes food that man can eat! 

S: Ok, so let's talk a little bit more about bees. Here are some fun facts about bees. 

M: All bees have 5 eyes, 6 legs (like all insects), and 2 pairs of wings which they can beat over 11,000 times per minute. That’s why they’re noisy! They can actually fly 20 mph. 

S: That's pretty fast.

M: It is! 

S: There are about 20,000 different species of bees in the world. About 3,600 are native to the U.S. and Canada. But only a few species actually make honey and live in social groups or hives. The rest are loners. We’ll focus on the honeybees that make not only honey but also beeswax, royal jelly, propolis which is known as “bee glue”, and of course, venom.

M: Susan, have you ever been stung by a bee?

S: I have not been stung by a bee. Wasps, but never a bee. How about you?

M: Yes, once as a kid, going down a slide right into a swarm of bees.

S: Oops. 

M: Yeah, I got a couple. 

S: Yeah they get mad when you do that. 

M: Yeah, I mean, it was my bad.

S: Well, back to bees… There are 3 types of honeybees in a hive: the queen, the drones which are male, and worker bees which are female and they’re the only ones who can actually sting. An average beehive can hold about 50,000 bees, but Jane says her large hives have about 80,000!  

M: Wow! Each honeybee from the same hive has their own specific color identification – probably because they all come from the same queen. They can also distinguish between their own scent, that of a relative, and that of a stranger. And this means they can avoid flowers that they’ve already visited. 

S: Bees are so smart. A hive of bees can fly over 55,000 miles and collect nectar from about 2 million flowers to make just 1 pound of honey. They are such hard workers, I mean, at least the females!

M: So here’s how the pollinator-honey process works. A bee flies to a flower. It drinks the nectar of the flower and brushes up against the flower’s reproductive parts. Some of the pollen of the flower sticks to the bee’s hairy abdomen and legs.

S: The bee then flies to another flower. Some of the pollen from the first flower will be deposited into the second, and the flower will be “pollinated”. This means it can now produce fruit things, like apples, bananas, melons, peaches, or potatoes, or a seed like vanilla, coffee, nuts, and even chocolate!

M: And let’s not forget about fats and oils! More than half of the ones we eat come from animal-pollinated plants like sunflowers and canola. 

S: Once the bee’s full of nectar it flies back to the hive and deposits the nectar and the pollen that's left over on the honeycomb, it adds a little bit of bee magic, and honey is made!

M: The USDA estimates that ¾ of the world’s flowering plants and about 35% of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce. 1 out of every 3 bites of food we eat exists because of animal pollinators like bees, butterflies, moths, birds, bats, and other insects. 

S: And the economic impact of pollination worldwide is – get this – $577 billion per year. That is a staggering amount!

M: That is staggering! 

S: Honeybees in the U.S. alone contribute nearly $20 billion!

M: Yeah, that’s a more powerful impact than I would have guessed. 

S: It’s crazy. Well, I got to spend a day with my friend Jane, as I said, and she’s an amateur beekeeper in South Texas. And she taught me so much about bees! I asked her why she decided to become a beekeeper and how much it cost to get started and here’s what she said.

J: I started in 2013 or 14. I’ve always been interested in the bees and thought they’re magnificent creatures. And one Saturday a friend was going to a class in Austin and invited me to go. And it was a class on beekeeping and it was a nice, you know, informative class and I thought well maybe I could put a hive or two out somewhere on the ranch. And so that’s how I got started.

S: What does it cost to start a beehive? Like you have to order bees, I suppose?

J: Well you’ve got to have a hive. A hive is made of a brood box, and a super or two supers.  And so you have to buy that plus the frames that go in it. And so there are things you add to it as you figure out what you need. But for about $600 is what a hive’s going to cost you to start from scratch. The bees are probably going to cost – if you buy a, what they call a nuc, an N-U-C, like a nucleus. If you buy one of those it’ll probably be about $300 for a queen with about 5 frames of bees coming along with her as her retinue. 

S: So if you buy a nuc… and then you would – theoretically if all goes well, you wouldn’t have to replenish it.

J: That’s right.

S: It will just replenish itself over time.

J: That’s right. Yes. 

S: If you take care of it.

J: Yes. And so those 5 frames will grow into the 10 across the brood box and then they’ll fill the super with honey. 

S: As you go up and up and up.

J: Right.

S: Jane has 6 hives on her ranch. We posted some pics in our show notes. We talked a little about the types of bees that she has. 

S: You have, I think we saw, what 6 hives now. 

J: 6 yes. 

S: And you said you have Italian bees– Italian honey bees, and you have Texas honey bees and you said you can’t tell the difference.

J: I can’t tell by looking, I don’t know the Texas ones very well yet. They’ve only been here about 3 weeks and today is the first day I’ve opened their hive and looked at them. And so they look just like regular bees. I just know that the ones I first purchased were Italian bees.

S: And why did you pick Italian?

J: They’re very docile. 

S: Aww, that’s a good idea.

J: And that’s their reputation and they do pretty well in the Texas heat. I do have one Italian hive however that is more aggressive than the others and I don’t really know why unless their queen just – the eggs that she lays come into better, more aggressive bees.

S: Wow! So all your hives have a different personality?

J: Yes, they do. 

S: That is so interesting!

J: You have to– you kind of have to know where you are and what’s about to happen.

S: Well they seemed very docile when we were there and we looked at them. They looked like they were busy. 

J: Yep.

M: Sounds like those are good ones to start with… But how interesting that every hive has a different personality.

S: I know, right? Well didn’t go into the hive of the more aggressive Italian bees, we stuck with the nicer ones since it was my first time.

M: Smart, smart. 

S: Yeah. When we went to the hives we had a smoker with us which is just what it sounds like and you’ve probably seen one on TV or on the internet. So Jane told me why we use the smoke. 

S: Bees are incredible! 

J: They communicate and they send out signals with pheromones. That’s why you use a smoker because it messes up their pheromones and they can’t tell exactly what’s going on.

M: So you guys didn’t have any problems?

S: We did not. But Jane has been stung a few times. 

J: I have been stung before. But I have learned that I don’t stand in front of the hive because that doesn’t please them. When I go and mow, they don’t like that noise and so not only do I suit up with my bee suit I wear chaps and gloves. Normally I work the bees bare handed. But when I’m mowing they get so aggravated, especially hive number 6. They attack, you know. They’ll just sit there on the hives and look at me. They can tell where your head is. They can smell the, I guess, carbon dioxide you're breathing out so they know where to attack better.

S: Oh wow. They’re so smart.

J: They’re very smart. And they work as a whole organism together.

S: Yeah, they communicate. 

J: Oh yeah. Bees are actually not very aggressive unless you scare them or hurt them. And if you scare them or hurt them, they’ll send out some kind of pheromone and everyone else will become alert. That's how I got stung 19 times. Without having– I didn’t have my suit on, I was just feeding them and I bumped the hive... And, of course, one of them came out and was scared and stung me. Of course, once they sting, they leave their stinger in you, they can’t pull it out. And once that happens, the pheromones go – that bee is going to die and everyone else knows it and so they come out to attack too. I was trying to walk away and I couldn’t run because I just had a knee replacement. So I was walking away as fast as I could but they got in my hair and I was shaking my hair trying to get them to come out. But by the time I could get far enough away, oh maybe 200 yards, they stung me 19 times. 

S: Oh my gosh!

J: Yeah, I didn’t like it much.

S: That’s an understatement I would say. 

M: Oh my gosh, 19 times! 

S: I know! She was really clear though that if she gets stung it’s something she did wrong, not the bees did wrong. And as I said, the bees checked me out through the netting of the bee suit but they really didn’t bother me at all. I wasn’t ever nervous while I was out there. 

M: Well that’s good. Well, bee suits are a good thing to have!

S: Oh yeah, for sure. I think I would have been nervous without the bee suit on.

M: Me too.

S: Yeah. Jane and I spent some time then talking about how the hives actually work and the three types of bees, the queen, the drones, and the worker bees. 

M: Like all insects, honey bees have 4 life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. A queen’s only job is to lay eggs – she’ll lay several thousand a year. Some of the eggs are unfertilized so they have just one set of chromosomes and these will become males or drones. Other eggs are fertilized and will become either female worker bees or a queen, depending on what it’s fed.

S: Right. The queen only lays eggs. After 3 days the egg will hatch and become a larva. And then for 5 days the larva will get fed food from the worker bees. And the worker bees can give them one of two types of jelly either worker jelly, or royal jelly. 

M: So the workers decide what the egg will become.

S: Right. 

M: If they give it royal jelly, it becomes a new queen.

S: After 5 days the larva chamber is capped and then the larva becomes a pupa. It remains in this capped chamber for about 13 days. Then it hatches and it becomes an adult, and then it can play its role. So it’s 21 days from egg to adulthood.

S: And so the larva that the queen is laying – her eggs. Do those then hatch in the next spring? Or do they hatch the same spring? 

J: No, no, the same. It's about 18 to 21 days. What you do is you look in the hive and you see little bitty larva in these cylinders. Where she has laid an egg, it’s going to hatch into a larva in 3 days. 

S: Oh.

J: So if you’re looking in your hive to see how your queen’s doing, you expect to look into those  compartments and see a little white thing in a lot of them… So after 3 days, they're sealed up and that becomes a larva and it grows in there until it comes out. 

S: As a full fledged bee.

J: Yeah. Well the whole– from the time that they’re born until they get so old they can’t forage anymore is–  can be about six weeks.

S: Oh, so you’re consistently renewing the hive?

J: Yes, that queen needs to be laying a lot of eggs.

S: And then over the winter, does she lay eggs over the winter too?

J: She’ll slow down but she’ll still lay some.

S: Do they come back or do they stay in the same hive year after year after year?

J: As long as the queen stays there, they’ll stay. 

S: Wow! 

J: As long as she is a producing queen. She’s got to lay eggs all the time. That’s all she does – lays eggs. And she has a retinue of bees that help take care of her, make sure she’s cool enough, make sure she's got food. It is amazing – if that queen is failing, the other bees know and they will create a new queen. And feed the larva royal jelly to make it into a new queen. And then if they have some drones around… the queen will go on her maiden flight – she’ll get fertilized. All the eggs she ever lays have been fertilized that time. 

S: One time?

J: Yep. There’ll be thousands of eggs. 

S: Wow!

J: She’ll probably lay 350 a day.

S: Oh my gosh. So the only reason to keep the male drones around is in case they have to make a new queen. They don’t do anything else to keep the hive going. And in winter, Jane says they get kicked out of the hive, which I found really fascinating

S: So when you go back in the spring. So over the winter, the bees just live in the hive. But it’s just the females?

J: Right. The queen and the female bees are the worker bees. The drones are the male bees and their purpose is to fertilize the queen. They keep them around in case they need to make a new queen who– the eggs need to be fertilized. And then since the drones don’t work, in the winter time they would eat up the honey. They just lay around and eat up the honey so the female bees push them out of the hive and won’t let them come back.

S: And they die?

J: They die. 

S: Wow!

J: It’s kind of a cruel thing but, I guess, if you don’t work you don’t get to eat and the drones don’t work.

S: She told me she’ll find lots of dead drones on the ground in winter time.

M: It sounds like the female worker bees are the true heroes of the hive.

S: Absolutely. They really keep it going. I mean, they take care of the eggs and the larvae, they forage for nectar and pollen from flowers, and they make the honey that they eat. 

M: Society would collapse without these hard-working ladies…  Just like ours!

S: You’re so right!

S: So let’s talk about the honey that bees make. Of course, that’s what we take from the hives for ourselves and we’ve been robbing honey bees for thousands of years. But what’s actually in it?

M: Well, 80-85% of it is sugar. But it also has a tiny bit of protein, vitamins, and minerals. The nutrient content of honey varies greatly. It really depends on the pollen and the nectar that they get from flowers.

S: So it varies based on the season, weather patterns, and the location of the bees. This also changes the flavor. And honey also contains a little bit of water – about 18%. 

J: The honey is sealed and it’s very interesting about the sealing of the honey because the bees know exactly when it’s 18% moisture and that’s when they seal it. 

S: Really? 

J: If you do it with too much moisture it’ll ferment. 

S: Oh my gosh! 

J: So when it’s 18% they seal it. And I don’t know how they know, they just do.

S: That’s crazy. 

M: Honey is food for the bees, but humans primarily use it as a sweetener. Before sugar cane was cultivated it was really the only sweetener available! 

S: So Jane and I talked about how she actually harvests her honey.

S: Ok, so the honey you said, you extracted in, like, mid to late summer?

J: Yes.

S: And is that just in Texas or is that nationwide, like the time?

J: I’m sure it is just in South Texas because in the North they’re going– you have to think about the bees and they need to have food for the winter, so you want them to have enough. Well in South Texas, the flowering season is going to be finished and they will have made all the honey they’re going to make by late July, August, maybe… it’s according to the year, you may even go into September, but they’ve made all they’re going to make. You can see their honey stores and you are going to now rob the hive, you want to leave at least 30 lb of honey in there–

S: Oh!

J: –for them to have over the winter, probably a little more than that. And so if you have a box where the honey is placed and it’s a medium frame box, the box will probably weigh about 40 lb of honey just in that box. So if you have two of those boxes, you’ve got a lot of honey, so there'll be plenty for you and the bees.

S: Yeah. So what do you take? About half? Or you just take…

J: I just make sure that the hive is going to have at least, probably 40 lb of honey in it when I’m done. You know, I don’t want to be greedy. And I’ve got plenty of honey, you know.

S: Yeah, yeah.

J: And I’m not trying to sell it myself. So all my friends get some.

S: Yes we do and it’s delicious. 

J: We have honey, you know, year round.

S: It’ll be interesting to see if the honey from the Texas bees tastes differently from your Italian bees this year. 

J: Yes, but they’re going to all be eating the same thing. 

S: So it’s based on the flowers and whatever– ? 

J: Yes, yes. 

S: So you don’t think it’s going to be very different? 

J: I doubt it. You know it’s been different from year to year. Like a couple of years ago the honey was a darker color, and heavier, thicker than it was this last summer. But I don’t know why.

S: Huh.

J:  So whatever was available, you know, the rains bring the spring flowers.  

S: Right.

J: And that’s where most of the honey is made, the wildflowers.

S: So it just depends on whatever flowers you get. 

J: Mmm-hmm. You can buy honey that says it’s all clover honey or whatever kind of flower– I can’t do that because I can’t– I don’t have a field right next to my hives that I’ve planted that grows enough flowers that that’s only– where they all go. They can go anywhere and find any kind of flower. But you tasted the honey this morning and it was fairly sweet?

S: Oh it was very sweet. 

J: Tastes like honey. 

S: I highly recommend honey straight from the hive. 

J. Yeah, we just opened where they had capped the honey – 18% moisture and it is ready to go. 

S: Will they recap where we dug into it.

J: Yeah, I don’t know what they’ll do actually. They might be so mad at us they won’t. 

S: So how much did you take last year?

J: 80 lb.

S: 80 lb. And the year before that? 

J: 60.

S: So you’ve been doing this—

J: No, actually the year before that was zero. I didn’t take any because I had to feed the bees and I don’t take the honey if I’ve been feeding them.  

S: Oh.

J: I only take the honey if they’ve had enough wildflowers. So it was 80 last year, the year before it was zero, and the year before that was 60.

S: So this will be your fourth year–

J: Yes. 

S: –to get honey. And so when you go to get the honey out, can you kind of go through that process? 

J: Well we suit up and light the smoker and go down there and open the hives and try to figure out if it’s got a lot of honey in it. We take the frames that we’re going to use and put them in a box, a frame box, in the back of my little buggy and haul them to the house. And so anyway, you have to cut the top off of the hexagonal shape in the cone–

S: Oh right.

J: –where the honey is stored.

S: Yeah.

J: So you cut the top off of that and the honey just drips out. We put them in an extractor (that I showed you) with centrifugal force or you sling it to make it drip out faster. 

S: Ahh. 

J: And then you catch the honey, then you put it into a bucket. Well, I always run it through a couple of strainers before I put it into any buckets. Then I take it- I take it home and let it sit for a while and then I strain it some more. 

S: Yeah, you said you strain it 4 times?

J: Yes, at least. 

S: We posted a pic of her honey extractor in the show notes. Harvesting honey – or robbing the bees as Jane calls it – is pretty labor intensive… but for her it’s a labor of love.

M: Humans have been using honey as medicine for at least 6000 years – primarily for sores and wounds, but also for coughs and inflammation of the respiratory system..

S: And we still use it for that. Honey is a common ingredient in cough drops and in cough medicine. It does have some anti-inflammatory properties. And there is some evidence of anti-cancer activity and reduction of cardiovascular diseases with the consumption of honey. 

M: But it really is wound care where honey shines! Honey has antibacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-viral properties and promotes wound healing. When honey is put on wounds or burns it causes inflammatory cytokines from surrounding healthy tissue to be released. This helps to clean the wound and accelerate healing.

S: But not all honey is created equal. According to several sources, local beekeeper “raw” honey like Jane’s tends to have up to 5 times more antimicrobial potential than store bought honey. 

M: Right. Store bought honey is pasteurized which means it’s heated to a very high temperature for a short period of time. This is to kill harmful microbes that may be in it and it does make the honey a bit safer to eat. This also extends its shelf life.

S: Raw honey basically goes straight from the hive to the jar, so the anti-microbial activity remains. However, raw honey can definitely have some of these harmful microbes in it. The most common harmful microbe in honey is Clostridium botulinum. 

M: And that is the main reason honey should never be given to an infant less than 1 year old. The small amount of clostridium in honey is generally not harmful for adults as our immune systems can fight it off. But the immune system of infants is still forming, so a clostridium infection can be serious for infants causing muscle weakness and breathing troubles. 

S: Right, I mean for infants, even pasteurized honey can be deadly, so no honey of any kind until after their first birthday.

M: And because of these microbes you probably don’t want to put any honey on your burns or wounds unless it’s “medical grade”.

S: Like Manuka honey. It’s the most studied variety and it was the first in the U.S. to be FDA approved. It's officially registered as a medical device, like contact lenses. 

M: To be FDA approved the honey must be completely free of pesticides, herbicides, and pollutants which is impossible for raw honey. It also must be sterilized with gamma irradiation to kill those pesky Clostridium spores. 

S: But an internet search will tell you that Manuka honey can cure almost anything! It’s made in Australia and New Zealand and the bees pollinate the native Tea Tree plant. It does have high anti-microbe effects.

M: The manuka honey producers came up with a potency scale and they rank their honey using what they call a Unique Manuka Factor or UMF scale. Anything with a ranking over 10 can be sold as Manuka honey. But doctors and researchers aren’t really sure if this rating means anything from a medical standpoint.

S: So perhaps it’s primarily a marketing tool?

M: Yes, but the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database does list honey as “possibly effective” to treat mild burns and wounds.

S: I got to try some of Jane’s bee’s honey directly from the hive! I mean, I’ve had it before. She gives us honey every year from her hives. But this was like right out of the hive and it was so good. It was really clear in color, kind of a very light tan and very sweet. If you ever get a chance to try honey directly from the hive – do it! 

M: I’ve also read that since honey originates from local flora it can strengthen the immune system against allergies so in theory if you have plant allergies you should consume local honey. 

S: Well that idea makes sense. I mean, if you are allergic to something, the treatment is often introducing a small amount of the allergen over a prolonged period to help your immune system tolerate it. But…

M: Of course there’s a but…

S: In reality, the evidence isn’t great that local honey can help seasonal allergies. The reason? Seasonal allergies are usually caused by airborne pollen that blows in the wind from trees or grasses. Bee’s honey is made from pollen from pretty flowers, it’s not airborne. So it’s not the same.

M: That’s too bad. But eating local honey is still delicious! Especially if you can get it straight from the hive!

S: So true.  

S: The last thing Jane and I discussed is how she keeps her hives healthy. 

J: Varroa mites are a problem in South Texas and you can buy drugs that you put in the hive that stop the varroa mites but you have to do it about– some people do it 4 times a year, I think I do it about twice. So you put a strip in there with the medicine on it that kills the varroa mites.

S: Oh.

J: And then if it’s a very serious drought and there's nothing for them to eat, I feed them sugar water. 

S: Wow, just like hummingbirds.

J: Yeah, or you can buy bee food that is in a powder form and you just put the powder out and the bees will eat that too. You want them to have some protein and, you know, some sources of food. So when it gets real dry like August, you know, I feel sorry for them so I feed them.

S: Yeah it’s hot!

J: And I put shade over the hives too.

S: Oh that’s nice and you did have water out there for them.

J: Yes.

S: And then you were also talking about pesticides– that you don’t use them anymore?

J: I don’t. On a lot of the ranches around here people have — they put out fertilizer in the spring and accompanying the fertilizer they’ve sprayed weed killer. Well the weed killer kills all the blooming wildflowers. 

S: Right.

J: And then of course, the bees ingest it and it kills the bees. So in my place, we don’t use weed killer but there are other places contiguous to mine that do. So I still have to worry about that. 

S: So have you noticed anything? I mean, you’re on 200 acres so….

J: Right, but I put the bees in the center of the place so they shouldn’t have to go next door–

S: Mmm-hmm.

J: Of course, I don’t know if they do or not.

S: Right.

J: They might go a mile or so foraging. So if they went a mile, they would go into the neighbors' places. 

M: We’re rapidly losing bees and other pollinators for many reasons – habitat loss, use of pesticides and herbicides, and our agricultural monocultures. But there are things we can do to help pollinators like honey bees thrive.

S: So what could we do to encourage bees?

J: I think we can plant flowers, the kind of flowers that bloom that the bees can use. We can try to not put pesticides out or weed killer out.

S: What else? Is there anything else we should talk about about bees?  

J: Well I've told you a whole lot and I hope I’ve been right on most of it.

S: Thank you so much, that was so interesting. It was really fun to see the bees.

J: Well I hope you enjoy your honey. 

S: I am going to for sure. And that’s it for our deep dive into bees and honey! Special thanks goes to our friend Jane Davis who loves her bees and is doing her part to keep her environment bee-friendly and her bees healthy and happy.

M: If you want to hear the entire interview with Jane you can find it in our show notes at yournutritionprofs.com. 

S: So go out and plant some pollinator-friendly flowers in your neighborhood! 

M: The USDA has some really great resources that we’ll also link in our show notes. They have a pollinator friendly planting guide where you can enter your zip code and then download the one for your region, and a searchable database with a list of plants on an excel spreadsheet. 

S: Check it out! And try some local honey - you’ll be supporting bees and local beekeepers!

M: Thanks for joining us today!

Both: Class dismissed. 

S: We hope you enjoyed this episode. You can find the show notes and a list of sources on our website, yournutritionprofs.com. 

M: Your homework is to follow us at your nutrition profs on Instagram and to listen to our next episode. You can listen on Amazon Prime, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere podcasts are found. We’d appreciate it if you’d “like” us, write a review, subscribe, and invite your family and friends to join us too. 

S: If you have a nutrition or health question you’d like answered, let us know! We may even do a show about it! Send an email to yournutritionprofs@gmail.com or click on the “Contact Us” page on our website.

M: Thanks to Brian Pittman for creating our artwork. You can find him on instagram @BrianPittman77

Both: See you next time!