Save The Bees Tees

Show your support for the honey bee with a Bee Haven T-Shirt

Bees are the primary pollinators in nature, while the honey bee specifically has taken on an increasingly vital role for pollinating the thousands of acres of fruits and nuts planted as industrial monocultures. As chemical herbicides pesticides and industrial agricultural practices have grown, the environment has become less hospitable for bees. In times past it was not uncommon to find fields of clover and alfalfa and wild areas for year round forage. However, corn and soy are now the predominate plants and manicured lawns and parking lots create food deserts for the flower feeding bees.

Four more ways you can support your local honey bees
  • Plant bee friendly flowers. To support a variety of bees plant a variety of flowers that will bloom through out the growing season. Sage, salvia, oregano, lavender, ironweed, yarrow, yellow hyssop, alfalfa, honeywort, dragonhead, echinacea, bee balm, buttercup, goldenrod and English thyme are all loved by the honey bee.
  • Don’t Spray! Weeds are flowers too. Clover and dandelions are favorites of the honey bee and naturally add nitrogen to the soil for a sustainable and colorful yard. Herbicides are poisons introduced into our environment, but they also kill off “weeds” that are a vital role in healthy ecosystems and bees.
  • Provide water. The ingenious honey bees use water for evaporative cooling just as we perspire to cool our body. During droughts, a hive may need a quart of water a day.
  • Bee friendly. Honey Bees are the most domesticated of insects and do not usually sting unless their hive is threatened or they are swatted or trapped in fingers or under foot. Often they are drawn to people’s beautiful floral colored clothing and sweet perfumed smells. So relax and take their visit as a compliment.