Have you ever dressed up like a bee for Halloween? Do you remember the Blind Melon video with the little girl dressed up as a bumblebee? Did you draw a bee in your 5th grade artwork? Have you dressed your baby in a bumblebee costume? Do you eat honey? Or have you been stung by a bee? Are you now scared of them? Do you swat at them when they’re around?
No matter what your relationship is with the bee now, you need to make them your BFF because we need them. Yes, we, the almighty human race, need bees. We need them for so many reasons. Bees are pollinators, transferring seeds and pollen between flowers, allowing plants to grow and produce food. At stake are an estimated $15 billion per year of crops in the United States alone, plus all of the wild plants that bees pollinate. Bees increase crop yields and decrease production costs, not to mention all the tasty honey that they produce. You can also look at bees as a barometer of what we humans are doing to the world around us — if they are dying out, it’s a good telltale sign of where we as humans stand in terms of our environment, the way we farm, and how we are treating our planet.
There are some that already have this sort of close relationship with the bee… and that’s where HoneyColony comes in. Maryam Henein is the founder, editor-in-chief and B(ee)EO of HoneyColony. She is also the writer, co-director and producer of the award winning documentary Vanishing Of The Bees.
If they don’t live…neither will we.
Bees are in peril! Vanishing Of The Bees is a good way to get familiar with what’s going on in their world — and in turn, ours. For almost a decade, bees and their colonies have been disappearing at an astonishing rate, which researchers have called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). More information and knowledge is always developing, but much more is needed. Because if we don’t figure out what is causing CCD, we are in big trouble. While the issue is complex, one thing we surely know is that systemic pesticides are the main culprit! Bees pollinate 80% of the world’s plants, including 90 different food crops. You could almost go so far as to say: If they don’t live…neither will we. Talk about being connected.
HoneyColony is a way to get connected and cross-pollinate. Like building a hive, they encourage building a community and working together. It can be described as an on-line magazine, a marketplace, and a social network with top contributors from all aspects of health and wellness. The articles they publish and share are informative, insightful and pertinent. They also have a Bee Manifesto affirming that everything they do is to ultimately raise awareness regarding our precious bees.
For the shopping aspect, HoneyColony has carefully vetted the vendors they promote by carrying only the most superior products. They strive to feature companies that value integrity, quality, and sustainability. HoneyColony also offers BeeBucks to its community, which is not only an incentive when shopping but also when sharing.
I love that they offer some products that I have never heard of. They do their research, and they come up with some great finds. I’m happy that I can go to their site and trust what they are selling. I’m trying a handful of products now — so far so good, and I will share more about what I discover.
I was stung by a bee in 1989, while walking to the bus stop. I remember it well, from the warm spring air to the sharp prick on my arm. Even then I guess I was fascinated with Mother Nature — rather than freaking out, I actually imagined and hoped that it would give me mystical powers, like Superman. Maybe it did in some intangible way. I too feel like I have a relationship to the bee. As we all should. After all, we are all in this together…Let the hive thrive!