The image to the right is NOT, I repeat, NOT a honey bee. Nor has anyone figured out how to get honey out of them. It is rather a yellow jacket, a type of wasp. They are the stinging insect that hangs around garbage cans at amusement parks and ball games, especially in the fall, and should not be confused with a honey bee.
With the blame honey bees receive for stings actually from yellow jackets (even in newspapers to the extent of calling them killer ‘honey’ bees), and the misidentification of the general public, this picture is especially troubling. I already get calls about ‘honey bee swarms‘ in the fall that are really yellow jackets and don’t really need the public to have any encouragement in that direction. I received a link to this picture on a honey manufacturers homepage (by the manufacturer soliciting their products). What is especially annoying is that this manufacturer claims to run some 20,000 colonies themselves as well as processing honey from others. You would think they know what a bee is. (That said, the other pictures on their website showing ‘bees’ acually appears to be real honey bees).
