Having thoughts about starting some honey bees myself, I did a google search-(however the more I research and learn that it is not possible to contain honey bees to boundries and to stay off property which may be using pesticides, as the bees may die or bring to the honey residue) Does organic honey exist or is it extinct?

Lily, I raised bees as a kid to harvest nectar from our blooming apple trees - the honey was incredible - a light tan color. Bees will forage for nectar as close to the hive as possible so insuring organic honey is probably a matter of seasonal timing of flowering plants and placement of hives as much as anything. Some of the best honey I've had was mesquite honey from Texas. The best by far is Tupelo honey from the swamps of Louisiana where the beekeeper times the opening of the new hive with the blooming of the Tupelo tree and closes the hive when the tree stops flowering. Honey produced from (wild) trees would I think likely be organic and even from orchards that are sprayed could probably be managed to reduce exposure of bees to pesticides (though I guess they wouldn't be technically organic).

I have been following the story of the decline of bees for some time. Below is an article from National Geographic about the 50% decline in honey bees and what that might mean to the agricultural sector.

Bee Decline May Spell End of Some Fruits, Vegetables
John Roach
for National Geographic News
October 5, 2004

Bees, via pollination, are responsible for 15 to 30 percent of the food U.S. consumers eat. But in the last 50 years the domesticated honeybee population—which most farmers depend on for pollination—has declined by about 50 percent, scientists say.

Unless actions are taken to slow the decline of domesticated honeybees and augment their populations with wild bees, many fruits and vegetables may disappear from the food supply, said Claire Kremen, a conservation biologist at Princeton University in New Jersey.

Anecdotes of farmers losing their crops owing to the honeybee shortage appear to be on the increase, Kremen said. Last February, for example, there were insufficient honeybees for all the almond blossoms in California. As a result some farmers failed to meet expected yields.

"There are shortages [like this] that pop up from time to time," Kremen said. "Whether there are more [shortages] than there were 20 years ago, one would guess yes, as there are fewer bees to go around, but it's not well documented."
Maryann Frazier, a senior extension associate in the department of entomology with Pennsylvania State University in State College, said honeybee shortages are not yet impacting commercial producers of crops, but that community farmers "are struggling to get bees for pollination."

In fact, Dewey Caron, an entomologist at the University of Delaware in Newark, started to study the problem of the honeybee decline when he noticed that farmers in the northeastern U.S. increasingly lacked sufficient bee colonies to meet their pollination needs.
"Growers didn't have options if they didn't like the quality [of the bees] they got from one fellow," he said. "So, we started to ask, Well, what is affecting the bees? What can we do to keep them healthier?"
Bee Decline

The honeybee decline, which is affecting domesticated and wild bee populations around the world, is mostly the result of diseases spread as a result of mites and other parasites as well as the spraying of crops with pesticides, scientists say. continued

Never heard of tupelo, I'll keep a look out for it.

I also agree that bees are a natural resource as you described.

I understand that there is a natural fungus which can be used to control mites so farmers who raise honey wouldnt have to fumigate for mites or insects that may harm the bees. Its difficult to think that a poison that can kill one pest wouldnt kill a creature also so small in time.

I have purchased honey if I know the hives were not sprayed with any insecticides or mitecides...in general no "cides". Now I will have another consideration- geographics!

Do we have a map of the USA that is designated to Organic areas? just kidding-lol

I like the idea of planned pollination exposure with the bees. Much like tying a squash blossom closed after hand pollinating.

I might see one or two honeybees in the garden during the summer, but I see many bumblebees every day. I don't know if our native bees are capable of doing the pollination required by commercial orchards. There is a lot we can do to encourage native bees, but there is a price. Our lawns and golf courses will not look quite so perfect if we turn away from herbicides and pesticides. The issue is being debated here in Madison as we speak.

I met an organic blueberry farmer in a coop store who uses natural pollinators and has never had any trouble with his crops. He did say that he could hear the tractors in a near by feild that sprays chemicals earlier last week. That means the insecticides are going down. Bummer...hope they dont kill too many of his natural pollinators.