How to Attract Honey Bees

Bees play an essential role in preserving our ecosystem. After all, busy little bees are largely responsible for naturally pollinating a variety of flowers, vegetables and fruits. Of course, if your goal is to obtain the golden nectar they produce (honey), then you'll need honey bees. Even if you're an avid gardener and not a beekeeper, knowing how to attract honey bees can go a long way to improving a garden paradise.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Be kind to weeds, or at least let them attract honey bees for awhile. Most people consider anything that wasn't purposely planted by human hands to be a noxious weed. However, honey bees are blind to the fact. Their favorites? Clover and dandelion.
2. Introduce a variety of plants in your outdoor spaces. Honey bees love diversity. In fact, observations indicate that they seem to appreciate plantings of 10 or more different species close together.
3. Reward your honey bees with highly scented flowers. Bees have powerful "chemo receptors" in their antennae that seek out fragrances. Naturally, this will lead them to your environment if you provide the right incentives.
4. Become familiar with flowers and plants indigenous to your specific region. A local agricultural office or nursery can provide this information.
5. Invite honey bees to take an interest in your honeycomb boxes. How? With just a few drops of essential oil of anise. Bees can pick up this scent from half a mile or more distance. Use of this oil is especially helpful to attract honey bees when most flowers are spent.
6. Remember those sensitive chemo receptors. They also respond to artificial scents used to attract honey bees. These commercially available scents contain pheromones--agents that send chemical messages to bees to come and get it.
7. Forget about using commercial pesticides of any kind. It's not good for the bees and it certainly won't favor the production of quality honey.

Tips & Warnings

• Honey bees are a sub-species of bee that belong to the Apis genus and are native to Southeast Asia. There are 7 commonly recognized species of Apis honey bees.
• Propolis, which can be thought of as bee glue, is a popular ingredient in many cosmetics and is promoted as a health supplement. Honey bees manufacture propolis from tree sap and use it to strengthen the walls of the hive.