Sunflowers!

The field of sunflowers has bloomed and faded. While they were in their glory, we cut great bunches of the sunflowers for the house and for church. And the bees were all over them! The conventional wisdom has been that sunflowers don’t have much to offer the bees, certainly not the nectar that they are seeking in these hot summer days. But research from NCSU shows that a diet of sunflower pollen can dramatically lower rates of certain infections that plague honeybees and bumble bees. The bees apparently don’t subscribe to conventional wisdom! They know instinctively what is healthy for them. And it was healthy for us, too, to have those cheerful blooms nearby.