It’s World Bee Day! Meet the Casa Quirk Bees

Honey Bees in North America

Since 1622 the story most often told about honey bees in North America is that they were first brought to the continent by colonizers. Interestingly, in 2009 a honey bee was discovered in the fossil record revealing that North America did in fact have honey bees… about 14 MILLION years ago. Something happened to the bees over time here in North America, however, today we NEED BEES! Honey bees are essential to the pollination of wild and native plants AND we rely on them to pollinate over 100 crops in the USA.

While there are many different kinds of bees who make honey, the Italian Honey Bee is the most popular in North America and here at Casa Quirk we have 3 hives that are home to tens of thousands of bees. We are located next to large natural prairies and clover fields with plenty of floral variety available for collection. The bee pictured above was collecting dandelion pollen from our yard in early spring – there were plenty of dandelions to visit this year! The color of honey is largely dependent on the flowers the bees visit, usually the lighter the color the more mild the flavor. Darker honey will have a more intense flavor.

Learn more about honey bees and how they get their “jobs”!

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This post uses material from the following sources:

• https://www.planetbee.org/why-we-need-bees
• https://www.beeopic-beekeeping.com/news/italian-honey-bees/
• https://apiexpert.eu/italian-honey-bee/
• https://www.perfectbee.com/learn-about-bees/the-science-of-bees/common-races-of-honey-bee
• https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=1544
• https://www.motherearthliving.com/gardening/types-of-honey-bees-ze0z1303zgar/
• https://www.honeybeesuite.com/the-color-of-honey/