I have always had a special thing for bees. My Dad was a wonderful bee keeper and he taught me the importance of bees and how they are underappreciated. In the last few years there have been so many issues with the collapse of bee colonies. This has been reported all over the world and made me think that this year I would help the world's bee population by creating a special art piece that would raise funds.

From Uganda to El Salvador, bees from Heifer International help struggling families earn income through the sale of honey, beeswax and pollen. Beehives require almost no space and, once established, are inexpensive to maintain.
As bees search for nectar, they pollinate plants. Placed strategically, beehives can as much as double some fruit and vegetable yields. In this way, a beehive can be a boost to a whole village.
Although most Heifer partners keep bees as a supplement to family income, beekeeping can be a family's livelihood. Your gift can help Heifer provide a family with a package of bees, the box and hive, plus training in beekeeping - and this unique gift will be passed on to another family in need.

This is my plan ....my slogan is...Help Me, Help People, Help You....because I think that this cause can really make a difference in the world.

Every $30 Raised purchases a package of bees, the box and hive, plus training in beekeeping

Help Make a Difference....

Monday, April 20, 2009

More About bees....

There is only one queen in a bee hive and her main purpose in life is to make more bees. She can lay over 1,500 eggs per day and will live two to eight years. She is larger (up to 20mm) and has a longer abdomen than the workers or drones. She has chewing mouthparts. Her stinger is curved with no barbs on it and she can use it many times.


Drones are males and have no stinger. They live about eight weeks. Only a few hundred - at most - are ever present in the hive. Their sole function is to mate with a new queen, if one is produced in a given year. A drone's eyes are noticeably bigger than those of the other castes. This helps them to spot the queens when they are on their nuptial flight. Any drones left at the end of the season are considered non-essential and will be driven out of the hive to die.


Worker bees do all the different tasks needed to maintain and operate the hive. They make up the vast majority of the hive's occupants and they are all sterile females. When young, they are called house bees and work in the hive doing comb construction, brood rearing, tending the queen and drones, cleaning, temperature regulation and defending the hive. Older workers are called field bees. They forage outside the hive to gather nectar, pollen, water and certain sticky plant resins used in hive construction. Workers born early in the season will live about 6 weeks while those born in the fall will live until the following spring. Workers are about 12 mm long and highly specialized for what they do, with a structure called a pollen basket (or corbiculum) on each hind leg, an extra stomach for storing and transporting nectar or honey and four pairs of special glands that secrete beeswax on the underside of their abdomen. They have a straight, barbed stinger which can only be used once. It rips out of their abdomen after use, which kills the bee.
Posted by Diana Evans at
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Thank you for stopping by and saying hello...This is a wonderful cause and your support and kindness in helping get the message out means a lot....and will make a big difference....

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