When it comes to food, we have a lot more than honey to thank bees for - more than three quarters of the world’s food crops depend, at least in part, on pollinators. But bee populations, we often hear, are under threat, and that’s largely due to human behaviour.

Emily Thomas speaks to three beekeepers about the challenges of making money from honey and the complicated relationship between the human and the honey bee.

If we look carefully into the hive, she discovers, bees can teach us much about the environment, society and ourselves.

Producer: Simon Tulett

Contributors:

Joan Kinyanjui, Yatta Beekeepers, Nairobi; Dale Gibson, Bermondsey Street Bees, London; Ian Steppler, Steppler Farms, Manitoba.

If you would like to get in touch with the show please email thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

(Picture: A honey bee on the end of a human finger. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

Life lessons from the honey bee 29:35 Share

The Food Chain

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Life lessons from the honey bee