With the increased popularity of raising bees a person could ask: what are the advantages of beekeeping? In fact, while I would guess that it is generally known that honey bees produce honey, there are still other advantages to this hobby or activity that may not be as apparent.
Effectively, by keeping bees a beekeeper may collect honey and actually be able to consume raw honey. What is raw honey? Raw honey and liquid honey are not the same. A nice definition is given on the site benefits-of-honey.com when it can be read:
Raw honey is the concentrated nectar of flowers that comes straight from the extractor; it is the only unheated, pure, unpasteurized, unprocessed honey.
However, what I find to be really important concerning the consumption of raw honey is the presence of nutrients in raw honey that may not be there after the honey gets heated. On this same note, Ashley Rittenhouse of The Marietta Times states in an article:
Raw honey is different from liquid honey in that it holds beneficial enzymes and nutrients which usually die when honey is heated.
“They say if you eat honey from within 30 to 50 miles of where you live, it builds up your allergy immunity,” Linscott said. “They’re gathering from plants in your area.”
This being, the benefits of raising bees do not stop here because with beekeeping may come also the pleasure of looking at these creatures. Actually, this point is mentioned by Kent Linscott a beekeeper inside the article quoted earlier, when he says:
Linscott said being able to get honey is one major benefit of being a beekeeper, but working outside and observing the patterns of the bees are also benefits.
“They’re interesting creatures and it’s interesting to see their life cycle throughout the year and see there’s a season for them just like there is everything else,” he said.
Kent is not the only one to find it enjoyable to look at honey bees. Truly, Phil Butta in an article published on TheWesterlySun.com says:
It’s not just honey and beeswax – and the fascination many of us have just watching honeybees – that may be lost.
Thus, getting honey or even selling it does not sum up all the gains that can be gotten out of beekeeping.
As a matter of fact, I believe that one of the most important profits of keeping bees is linked to the pollination. Honey bees have been reported to be responsible for the pollination of a significant portion of the food supply in the United State. Effectively, an article in the MarriettaTimes.com mentions that:
Linscott said the group has grown since he first joined about five years ago, partly because more people are becoming aware of how much of the food supply is pollinated by bees. Bees pollinate about a third of U.S. crops, according to the Associated Press.
If beekeepers are able to provide a greater protection to the honey bee population through beekeeping vis-à-vis the massive use of harmful pesticide, beekeeping should really be encouraged.
Moreover, there are other advantages that could be obtained from this activity as noted earlier. Some of these are the collection of raw honey and its consumption, the pleasure of looking at honey bees, as well as, the fact that honey bees are very important in the pollination process of a large amount of food supply.
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