10 sweet photos of honeybees

Honey is one of our earliest sources of
sweetness. Depictions of humans gathering honey date back 15,000
years. The word “honey” pops up in the Bible 61 times. Jars of
honey were discovered^[1]
in King
Tut’s^[2] tomb. In Henry V,
written in 1599, Shakespeare pointed out that we have much to learn
from the social insects, whose colonies can number up to 80,000
individuals. “For so work the honey-bees,” he said. “Creatures that
by a rule in nature teach the act of order to a peopled
kingdom.”

For as long as honeybees^[3]
and humans have coexisted, the latter have been fascinated by the
former.

Today, the honeybees’ work—and our fascination with it—is more
important than ever. One-third of the world’s food supply is
dependent on the pollination honeybees provide. But harsh
environmental changes, rampant use of pesticides^[4], and the spread of
diseases are causing
bees to die off at an alarming rate^[5]. In the past year,
American beekeepers have reported losing, on average, an astounding
42.1 percent of their hives. (Read more: What
happens if honeybees disappear?^[6])

What can you do? Plenty! Plant or volunteer in a bee-friendly
garden. Attend meetings of your local beekeepers’ association. If
you spy a swarm, call a beekeeper—not an exterminator—to remove it.
And keep your own bees. Regardless of where you live, there’s
probably a place where you can keep bees. “Everyone should have two
or three hives of bees,” Sue Hubbell writes in A Book of
Bees. “Bees are easier to keep than a dog or a cat. They are
more interesting than gerbils. They can be kept anywhere. A
well-known New York City publisher keeps bees on the terrace of his
Upper East Side penthouse, where they happily work the flowers in
Central Park.”

At National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., we have
two hives of bees on a balcony overlooking the Washington Monument,
just down the street from the
hives at the White House^[7].

In 2009, the United States Department of Agriculture declared
that the third Saturday of every August would be recognized as
National Honeybee Day. We put together some of our favorite photos
of the beautiful insect to celebrate its importance in our lives
and to raise awareness of its plight.