What a way to kick off Midsouth NAMA’s Fall season.  The first event took place at the Memphis Agricenter on September 26 and featured David Glover of The Bartlett Bee Whisperer.  Honey Bees have slowly been dying the last 60+ years.  From a whopping 5 million bees in 1940 to only 2.4 million in 2014, these bees have been disappearing due to diseases and viruses.

An interesting fact about honey bees is that they are smoked in their hives when harvesting honey because their bodies fill up with honey and it makes them less likely to sting people.  Also interesting is that 60% of the honey bee population is sent to California to pollinate almond trees in the Spring.  And, if you ever wanted to find out if apples were pollinated correctly, just cut one up and count the seeds – if it has less than 10 seeds then it was not. David was very informative and his take-away was that honey bees are needed for our ecosystem.  As a result, he relocates bee hives.