Precious Honey Bee on Apple Blossom

When Steve and I went to the High Cascade Emu Ranch back in May, I had an awesome time wandering around their property taking pictures of everything! In fact, I have dozens of pictures I hope to post from my visit there that have nothing to do with Emus. There was an orchard, vegetable and berry garden, they had a flock of chickens, and boy did they have a gorgeous assortement of flowers in their beautiful garden and all over the place! I was in heaven!!

There are over 20,000 species of bees in the world, but only 7 species and 44 subspecies are recognized as true honey bees! Did you know that the first honey bees were found in fossils dating back millions of years? The honey bee is so important to our planet that Einstein once said, "If honey bees become extinct, human society will follow in four years." Very simply put, this is because our planet's ecosystem is interconnected and pollination is crucial to the survival of plant species, which are crucial to the survival of the animals which feed on the plants, and crucial to us because we need both the animals and the plants in order to live. Very chilling to find out that the world's population of honey bees has been declining in the past 60 years due to viruses, pesticides, and what's called, "Colony Collapse Disorder."

If you would like to know more about honey bees, Wiki has a great page here: Wiki: Honey Bee
For more information about the virus killing honey bees, this article is very good: UK Guardian: Honey Bee Virus. To learn about the pesticides killing our precious honey bees, this article is very good: US News: Pesticides Tied to Crashing Bee Populations. For information about Colony Collapse Disorder, Wiki has a page here: Wiki: Colony Collapse Disorder