This is a story of honey bees and beekeepers past, present and future.A rock painting in Spain from around 8,000 years ago shows a human climbing a cliff with a basket in the middle of a bee swarm. It is one of the earliest images of humans harvesting honey. |
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One-third of the food eaten by Americans comes from crops pollinated by honey bees. Honey is created from the nectar bees get from flowering plants. |
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Native Habitat Project’s Kyle Lybarger explores Alabama’s backcountry fields and prairies in search of ancient native flowers and grasses. |
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Booker T. Washington’s wife Margaret taught beekeeping at Tuskegee University in the 1900’s.
The legacy continues with Tuskegee Bee Company.
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The Bible described the promised land Canaan as a "land flowing with milk and honey.” |
Harrell and Sons of Hayneville, Alabama were one of the
largest commercial beekeeping operations in the South for many years.
M.C. Berry & Son was once one of the largest beekeepers and queen bee distributors in North America.
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Farmer and beekeeper Mike Keller of Southern Sweet Bee in Hope Hull, Alabama sells queen bees.
Queens and her brood are fed Royal Jelly, a “super-charged” bee concoction that can transform a worker bee into a fertile, longer-living queen. |
Foxhound Bee Company in Birmingham, Alabama is a distributor of queen bees and offers beekeeping classes and supplies.
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Honey-based ambrosia and nectar were the divine food and drink of the Olympian gods in Greek mythology, granting them immortality, eternal youth, and strength.
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Beekeeper Keller delivers hives to Alabama Safari Park where wild animals need vast grasses and fields for grazing.
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Honey bees are resilient, but there are serious threats to managed bee hives.
Auburn Bee Center director Geoffrey Williams discusses bee health and the future of bee management. |
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In medieval monasteries, beekeeper monks brewed a fermented honey drink called mead, and beeswax was used to make candles that lit churches and illuminated manuscripts at night.
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The connection between beekeepers and honey bees is ancient and essential to our food supply.
This film explores that special relationship between bees and their keepers. |
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