An estimated 70 percent of the food we eat is dependent upon pollination by insects such as bees. You can help support these vital, fascinating creatures by learning how to raise them yourself! Whether you want to keep bees for pleasure or profit, in the city or in a rural area, “Keeping Bees and Making Honey” can guide you every step of the way, from where to place your hive all the way up to how to best savor your first spot of “homegrown” honey.
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You may want to give your bees a helping hand when it comes to collecting pollen and nectar by planting bee-friendly flowers and shrubs in your garden or outside space. Even in a larger garden, you’ll unlikely have enough flowers to produce sufficient nectar to sustain a hive, so your bees will probably go farther afield — up to 3 miles — to find richer and denser sources of food. But the right flowers, fruit and vegetables in your garden will attract some of your own bees, as well as welcoming other visitors such as the bumblebee and solitary bee species. Above all, a garden or patch devoted to plants that are attractive to bees can be a source of great pleasure to any beekeeper, as much for the riot of color as for the activity of the bees.
Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/modern-homesteading/bee-gardens-ze0z11zhir.aspx#ixzz1NctwC7vg
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