"All Hail Queen Beetrix XXVII"

Country Values By Brian Wilkes

She was a queen accompanied by her entourage. Some beekeepers glue a tiny, numbered metal disk to the back of each hive's queen to make her easier to find. I learned about this when a swarm of honeybees penetrated the wall of our house, and we called a beekeeper to remove and re-home them. A few hundred got into my office and tried vainly to get out again through a glass window. Although working a few feet away from them, they made no aggressive move toward me. So many don't realize how much we depend on honeybees to pollinate our food crops. As you enjoy the bounty of a harvest or the beauty of a field of flowers, please remember to thank the bees.