The month of September is National Honey Month. I doubt you will see lots of fireworks or be invited to any parties to celebrate this special occasion, but honeybees play a very important role in our lives. It is only fitting that we recognize the honeybee's importance by designating a month for them, even if we do not openly celebrate this designation.

Honeybees are fascinating insects. Each little honeybee will fly around at about 15 miles per hour visiting flowers to collect pollen. It takes visits to more than two million flowers to collect enough pollen to make just one pound of honey. In fact, each little honeybee will work its entire life to produce just one-half teaspoon of honey.

Beekeepers in the United States harvest more than 200 million pounds of honey each year. Now, if each honeybee produces only about one-half teaspoon of honey, just how many honeybees does it take to produce this much honey?

There are over 300 documented varieties of honey in the United States, each of them produced from a certain type of flower or from a certain location. These varieties vary from water white to dark amber, and each of them has a distinct flavor. Each person may have their own favorite variety, but many people will agree that honey is one of nature's most perfect gifts.

Although most of us know the honeybee more for the honey it produces, the most important function of honeybees is pollination. Without honeybees, our food supply would be drastically reduced. Many of the fruits and vegetables we enjoy each day are made possible for us because a honeybee pollinated the flower so the fruit or vegetable could form on the plant.

Many people use honey as a sweetener in beverages or in foods. Others use it as a topping on desserts. Some, like my mother, use it to help lessen problems with arthritis.

Since honey is produced from the pollen of flowers, both wild and domestic, many people feel that honey will help lessen problems associated with allergies. Since allergies are often associated with pollen from flowers growing close to a person's home, honey should be purchased from beekeepers that have bees gathering pollen from these same flowers, or at least in the vicinity. Honey purchased off the grocery shelf, or while on a vacation trip, might not provide the benefits expected, since the flowers visited by the bees might not be the same flowers growing in the immediate area.

Robeson County has a very active Beekeepers Association. There are about 40 active members of this association, and they meet the third Tuesday night of each month at the O. P. Owens Agriculture Center in Lumberton. Each meeting usually includes a meal and always includes an educational presentation about honeybees or honey.

The Robeson County Beekeepers Association will have a nice educational exhibit at the upcoming county fair. Their members have constructed a bee cage that allows members to get into the cage with live honeybees in order to demonstrate how to handle and manage honeybees. When you visit the county fair, I encourage you to make a special effort to stop by their booth and visit with them.

Beekeeping is a very interesting hobby. In addition, it provides a source of additional income for many people. Many hobby beekeepers are either retired or semi-retired or they manage their bee hives as a second source of income. In addition to harvesting and selling honey, beekeepers often rent hives to the many vegetable growers in the county to aid in pollination of their vegetable crops.

If you would like more information about bees or about beekeeping, please call Martin Brewington, agricultural technician with the Robeson County Center of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service and coordinator for the Robeson County Area Beekeepers Association. He may be reached at 910-671-3276. Brewington is a Certified Beekeeper, and he loves to talk about honeybees.

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 10/05/06