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t is usual for one to have good memories of someone they like, enjoy or are comfortable with. This letter is an outcome of my experience with honey bees that kept me on my toes looking and searching for them and protecting my kids from them.

Honey bees are known to build their hives in the same place every time, as guided by their queen bee. One fine evening I was surprised to see thousands of bees making their shelter, because it is exactly the same spot my sister showed me just the previous day, saying it was where a hive was built on a regular basis.

Our home is very close to that spot and, hence, it wasn'€™t difficult for them to find their way to us, though we kept all doors and windows closed. We also had to keep the place dark as they can manage only when the place is bright.

We still couldn'€™t stop them entering our home. All that I could do was to protect my kids in a particular room after ensuring there was not even one bee there. I have been curious to learn the following facts after that particular evening with bees.

It is possible to eradicate the bee hive from that particular spot only by redirecting the queen away from it.

Honey bees are predominantly known to produce honey, but their characteristic unity and cooperation with their coworkers are just astonishing. Bees help their ecosystem by depositing the pollens of one flower into another that results in the reproduction of flowers, seeds, plants and thus the cycle continues.

They are usually very gentle in nature and only sting out of insecurity, but not to harm anyone as they die immediately after stinging. The means of communication between them is dancing. When a bee finds a good source of food, it dances and directs other bees to gather food. The queen bee is really a queen whose job is to lead her group and to reproduce. Drones or male bees are responsible only to reproduce. Worker bees live according to their names and are most responsible for the existence of hive as they feed the queen and drones. While honey is becoming more familiar for its health benefits, decreasing numbers of bees is a major concern that causes imbalance in ecology by various means. Threats to bees include increasing use of pesticides and climate change.

Fortunately, lots of interest is shown to keep up the numbers of honey bees by monitoring their health, reducing the use of pesticides and introducing non-chemical farming alternatives.

Gayathri Suresh Kumar
Purwakarta, West Java