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Did you know… it takes honeybees over one million flower visits, and over 55,000 miles of travel (that is more than twice around the Earth) to gather enough nectar to make one pound of honey. Enjoy every drop!

The New Canaan Nature Center will have several thousand new inhabitants this year. Four hives of buzzing honeybees will take up residence on our grounds this season.

Honeybees are not native to North America, but were brought to the original colonies by pilgrims (the Native Americans called them the "white man's fly"). Since then, honeybees have been used in the United States to pollinate crops, and to provide various products of the hive, such as honey, pollen, propolis, and wax. But honeybees are not just sweetness (honey) and light (candles). Albert Einstein said that without the honeybee, the human race would cease to exist within four years. By some estimates, around 80% of the foods humans eat are pollinated by the humble honeybee.

The New Canaan Nature Center is dedicated to the whole of the environment, and is excited to welcome these gentle creatures onto the Nature Center property. We look forward to invigorating our vegetables and fortifying our flowers with the gentle visits of the bees on our grounds and sharing our honey with our patrons at the end of the season.

Do not be alarmed and do not fear! Honeybees will not attack you unless you cover yourself in nectar or disguise yourself as a flower. Honeybees are gentle, docile, and are not interested in anything other than taking care of their own hives and lives. We only ask that you stay about ten feet away from the front of the beehives, so as not to disturb their flight path Bees will fly straight out from their front door for ten feet before lifting into the air to go as far as three miles in every direction in search of nectar.

The Nature Center's honeybees are maintained by local beekeeper Andrew Coté, who is himself a fourth generation beekeeper who resides in Silvermine, and runs a small family beekeeping business, Silvermine Apiary. Aside from selling honey (Andrew's Local Honey is available locally at Walter Stewarts) and providing services, Andrew will periodically come to the NCNC to give talks and demonstration about these amazing and important beings. As a teenager Andrew learned the art of beekeeping from his father, himself a beekeeper for decades. Andrew, who is also a full-time college professor, often travels and lectures on honeybees and assists with honeybee related projects, including recent trips to Japan, Mexico, and in Iraq, where he helped the Iraqis learn new methods of bee rearing and pollination. You can learn more about Silvermine Apiary at www.CThoney.com.

On Saturday, June 10 from noon to 4 p.m. the New Canaan Nature Center will dedicate the afternoon to the phenomenon of honeybees. Attendees will find out why bees are one of the most unusual and industrious creatures around and will even get to watch Andrew Coté make a beard of bees, bees wax candles and lip balm. You can join in the fun as you play the "Buzzy, Buzzy Bee" game and plant your own vegatable to take home for the bees in your backyard.

TRIVIA QUESTION: Honey is one of two kosher foods from a non-kosher animal. What is the other one? To find out, come hear Andrew's talk on bees on Saturday, June 10, 2006 at 3:00 pm at the new Canaan Nature Center’s “Feel the Buzz” program.