Honey Bees

The honey bee is one of nature’s hardest workers and a critical pollinator of many of our food crops. Bees spend their days travelling from flower to flower, collecting nectar with their specialized tongues and storing it in sacs until they return to their hive. As they visit flowers, pollen sticks to their bodies and they transfer it from plant to plant allowing that flower to develop into fruit.

Inside the hives, the forager bees transfer the nectar to worker bees who use their mouths to work the nectar passing it back and forth until they create honey which is eventually deposited in the honeycomb for storage. To protect the honey, worker bees seal it with wax that they produce in their abdomens. Honey and beeswax can vary in color and smell reflecting the plants that the bees were visiting.

Beekeepers monitor and manage hives to watch for size and health of the colony. They may supply pollination to food crops, breed queen bees or harvest hive products such as honey and wax. Just as we are thankful for the wonderful bounty of food the earth produces, we appreciate honey and beeswax as gifts of nature. Honey Candles makes regular donations to honey bee research to help ensure the future of important insects!