Keeping bees healthy and safe

Beekeepers are always busy caring for and checking their bees. If bees are sick, beekeepers give them medicine. If the bees do not have enough honey to eat in winter, the beekeeper feeds them sugar syrup. Beekeepers also try to keep away insects and animals that eat bees or destroy hives.

Insects that eat bees

Ants and yellow-jacket wasps eat bees. Yellow jackets wait until bees are returning to the hive with full pollen baskets. When their legs are loaded with pollen, bees fly more slowly and are easy to catch.

Warm hives

Before winter arrives, the beekeeper wraps the hives in tar paper or burlap. The cover protects the bees from cold winds and snow.

Furry enemies

Bears love honey. A bear will destroy a beehive and kill many bees in order to get honey They do not mind being stung by hundreds of bees!

Skunks don't want honey They eat the bees. They often scratch on the front of a beehive at night to wake up the bees. When the worker bees come out to see what is happening, the skunk eats them.