You may not realize how important honey bees are to our delicate existence on Earth, but rest assured, they are vital. According to sustain.web, honey bees pollinate about one-third of the food consumed by humans on a daily basis and without them in our ecosystem, maintaining crops globally would be incredibly difficult. That's why scientists have been ringing alarm bells for years now, as disease, development and chemicals have taken their toll on the honey bee population. So in a time where there's so much bad news, here's some good news instead. Maine has seen a dramatic honey bee population in the last two years.


According to the Good News Network, Maine's honey bee population has seen a 73% increase in the last 24 months. The data was recently released by the United States Department of Agriculture. That's the largest increase in population by any state in the entire country. Many of the states that saw dramatic increases in the last 24 months are states that are less populated, with plenty of available plants for bees to feed on.

Christopher Furlong

Here in Maine, a couple of factors over the last 24 months may have contributed to the increase in honey bee colonies. One factor is the mild winters Maine has experience over the last two years. The second factor is plant growth, specific to plants like dandelions. Until the significant drought experience during 2020, Maine had seen ideal conditions for plants like dandelions to grow the past two summers.

Honey bees are important. And if you can live by the adage, "let the bee be and the bee will let you be", the dramatic increase in colonies may continue.

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