It's no secret that honey bees are busy-bodies. They're transported all across the country to pollinate various crops, and now they're returning to Michigan for the summer.
In addition to producing honey, honeybees are a domesticated species that are often hired out by large-scale farms to pollinate their fields and orchards.
Honeybees support roughly 80% of crops in the U.S., which are worth $15 billion, according to the Department of Agriculture.
"They are travelers, they are on the road quite a bit," said Genji Leclair, the co-founder of the Great Lakes Bee Company in Fremont.
The company is hosting a bee pickup event this Saturday that signals the start of summer crops, after commercial honeybees return from California almond farms.
"Almost every commercial colony in the country goes to California, so there are trucks and trucks of bees headed to California in January," Leclair said. "Then after that, they will follow the bloom across the country."
Leclair said her company will send out over 1,100 beehives across the state this season, where they'll pollinate crops like cherries, blueberries and apples.
"Their job is to go to these big farms when the blooms are coming out and let them pollinate," Leclair said. "And as soon as those blooms are done, they pick the bees up and take them to the next blooming crop."
Once the Michigan crops are set, commercial honeybees are usually taken south to places like Georgia for their winter break.
