It is World Bee Day once more!
Oregon is home to about 500 species of bees. You can find them in forests, fields and our own gardens. These busy insects are the main pollinators for 90% of plants, so keeping them healthy is important.
Maybe you know somebody who keeps bees in their yard. It is a fun and useful hobby. The kind of bees kept at home are called Honey Bees. They are a good natured breed …and make tasty honey. Recognizing them is easy.
Honey Bees might visit your yard looking for nectar from blooming flowers. Now, they might mistake your beverage, food, perfume or brightly colored clothes for a flower. Or maybe they are tired and need to sit down for a couple minutes. If you let them be, they will fly away again without hurting anybody.
The reason Honey Bees only sting as a last defense is that they die afterwards. You read that correctly, where a wasp can sting over and over again, a Honey Bee can do that only once and then dies. So they prefer to avoid any stinging. How would you bee?!
Learn more about bees and how to become a beekeeper yourself with the Oregon Bee Project.
World Bee Day in Oregon
Read more about the different kind of bees in Oregon.