World Bee Day is celebrated every year on May 20 because on this day Anton Janša, the pioneer of beekeeping, was born in 1734.

The purpose of international day is to acknowledge the role of bees as pollinators for the global ecosystem. Consistently on this day, the public should be focused on the significance of saving honey bees.

To learn about the importance of World Bee Day I decided to be with my well-behaved neighbors on City Island, New York.

Did you know that since bees have been in decline worldwide, the UN https://www.un.org/ has been celebrating #BeeDay since 2018, thanks to the efforts of the Government of Slovenia with the UN General Assembly, which declared 20 May as World Bee Day? The date for this observance is the day reserved for Anton Janša, an icon of modern Apiculture.

I asked Professor Patrick J Gannon, Ph.D., but his hard-working wife, Dr. Nancy Kheck, who is also known as the Queen Bee, could not be there if I could be a spectator, so they invited me over for a brief being there session to their bee sanctuary.

Dr. Gannon was born across the pond in the UK and settled down on City Island. Gannon is a native of Leeds, U.K., He attended the University of Central London and was recruited at Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York City, in 1979 as a research associate and then became a U.S. citizen in 1985, where he has been a mussel-sucker ever since.

We both live on City Island - A slice of NYC Paradise and here is where we sat down for a lesson on how to bee-have around these fantastic creatures.

Professor Gannon said when he was five his Mom warned him about the disinformation dangers of bees and as they say, the rest is the first draft of history. He was on his best behavior when a couple of bees landed on him while we were talking.

Since Gannon started working with these smart bees his honey production has increased, and his hives have produced local #CityIslandGold. We paid a sweet $16.00 for one jar at Kaleidoscope their exclusive local retailer. https://www.kaleidoscope280.com/ It is owned and operated by Paul Klein, President of the City Island Chamber of Commerce. https://cityislandchamber.org/