Many living creatures, including the human race benefit a lot from Honeybees. We reap their honey and set them to work cross-pollinating our crops. Their beeswax makes good candles and furniture polish. It is also a constituent in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. Propolis, the resins bees gather build their hive, is utilized in medicines for almost anything, from gum disease to different types of burns.

Honey bees are social insects that pollinate an estimated 1/3 of the human diet and they are in danger.

Currently researchers are focusing of three major possibilities of colony collapse:

* Pesticides have an unexpected negative effect.
* New parasites (nosema ceranae), pathogens or viruses may be attacking the bees.

Interested in backyard beekeeping? Whether you want to have your own local honey source, enjoy new hobbies, or wish to pollinate your crops more effectively, keeping honeybees can be a profitable venture. Local honey is considered an excellent remedy for many seasonal allergies, and many backyard beekeepers keep their honey raw by harvesting it without any heat.