Nearly every day during the growing season, I have the opportunity to bee-watch. It is sort of like bird-watching but without the binoculars. I like to move in within a foot of the handsome half-inch animals and observe their actions at flowers — those of clovers, alfalfa, and both wild and garden roses. It's quite easy for me to come up with a list of 100 flowering plants that offer pollen and/or nectar to these VIPs (Very Important Pollinators).

I even encounter honeybees in extreme urban areas. Some people wonder where they come from in such situations. It's not unusual for beekeepers to keep hives in major cities. They often do so on rooftops. So bees seen in cities aren't strays.

Most honeybees live in artificial hives, but swarms regularly escape and establish wild hives, usually in hollow trees. Honeybees aren't native to this country; they were first introduced into New England about 380 years ago. Modern archaeologists have found evidence that beekeeping was going on about 3,000 years ago in what is now northern Israel.

I find honeybee lore fascinating. What I have learned over time:

1. Bees are quite speedy. They can fly about 15 miles per hour.

2. About 1.1 pounds of honey is consumed yearly per capita in the U.S.

3. A single honeybee can produce only one-twelth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

4. Honeybees from the same hive visit 225,000 flowers per day. They are the No. 1 pollinators for vegetable crops and orchards.

Jim Gilbert has taught and worked as a naturalist for 50 years.