Flight of the Honey Bee

As we were getting ready to leave for church this morning, I was waiting outside for my man to get ready. (Yes, I was ready first.) I stood, looking at the way-over-my-head sunflowers. Bees were buzzing and having a field day, zooming and zipping and pollinating.

In particular, I was watching this one little bee. It was a bee, but of some sort I didn't really recognize. Stripes, smaller than usual honey bee, wings folded differently. It was SO into it's work.

I scooched a little closer, looking up into the flower and into the sun. The little bee's head was totally covered in pollen, giving it a yellow head. It's legs and back were also covered, but not as solid as the head. (I was wondering what would happen if a bee was allergic to pollen? If they could watch the news and hear what the pollen count was,...That couldn't bee good!).

Suddenly, it shot up over the top of the sunflower and off over the roof. As I was staring into the sky and sun, a trail of sparkling pollen floated off of the bee and drifted gently down on the plants below. It was magical. A little like bee-fairy dust. Except for the allergy part.

What an amazing world our God made! Tiny buzzing insects work (without being told or threatened or paid) hard, long hours to gather and pollinate thousands of flowers. As a result, we get to eat. We also get to enjoy honey, fruits of the labor of many, many striped wonders.

As we ate our plant based dinner (all pollinated by bees at some time prior to our meal), we relished the yellow pear tomatoes, tomatoes, chilies, zucchini, yellow squash, and onions. None of those would be possible without bees.

I'm glad bees are not allergic to pollen.