• Question: why r u interesting in honey bees

    Asked by vikresop to Stef on 11 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Stefan Piatek

      Stefan Piatek answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      So many reasons…

      From a non-scientific aspect, their hive smells great, I love honey and it’s amazing to be able to pick up thousands of bees on one frame and they just get on with their work, not bothering you much!

      Environmentally they are really important in pollinating most of our flowering plants, without them a lot of our food wouldn’t grow! It’s also really key to have them to keep wildlife going too.

      Scientifically they are social insects and make decisions as a whole hive through different chemical signals, it’s really amazing just how much they can get done. Finally their bee sting is really interesting to me because it activates the immune system (fighter cells) and as a beekeeper gets stung more often, they usually become less sensitive (like getting less allergic)

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