There is a reason why we associate bees with hard work.

Honeybees are highly social insects with an interesting hierarchy. At the top of the chain of command is the queen bee. She is the largest and each normal colony has just one. Her sole job in life is to lay eggs and she leaves the hive only to mate.

A drone, whose only job is to mate with the queen, lives a sadly short life, for once they mate, their life is over.

Workers - small in size but large in terms of their duties - have the important job of cleaning the hive and feeding the larvae. For farmers, the worker bees' most important task is collecting nectar and helping to pollinate plants and flowers. And from this nectar comes nature's unrefined sweetener known as honey.

So what happens to bees in winter?

Honeybees don't hibernate, despite the cold. Instead, colonies of worker bees vibrate their wing muscles to create heat to keep the queen from freezing. While there is die-off in the hive, a healthy beehive that has produced enough honey during the warmer months has a good chance of handling the colder winter temperatures that may threaten to invade their sanctuary.

Therefore, Ontarians can enjoy locally made honey all year round as there are more than 3,000 beekeepers in the province whose bees never take a holiday.

John Van Alten, owner of Dutchman's Gold and a member of the Ontario Beekeepers' Association, notes that while the bees concentrate on generating heat for the hive, he uses the opportunity to catch up on other aspects of running the Carlisle operation that comprises 1,500 colonies.

"We try to ignore them as much as we can from the first or second week of November until March," he said of the hives. While the spring and summer months are consumed with honey production and marketing and renting out colonies to canola and fruit growers, he spends December through February concentrating on tasks familiar to almost every farmer: marketing and maintenance and equipment repairs. And, possibly, a day or two on the slopes.

"There's not much opportunity for recreation during the summer," he laughed.

Here are some other fun facts:

The Ontario Beekeepers' Association (OBA) was established in 1881 and is one of the oldest farm organizations in Ontario.

Beekeeping is one of the oldest agricultural pursuits, yet honeybees are not even native to North America. They arrived with the early settlers and were kept in logs, straw baskets and crude hive boxes.

When it comes to colour, white honey is gathered from clover, basswood and canola plants. Golden honey has a distinctive flavour and is derived from fall flowers. Amber honey,

Ontario grocery stores tend to stock honey that is made up of a blend of nectars from a variety of blooms. It is best to store honey at room temperature and in a dry place.

By covering it tightly, you can retain its flavour and aroma longer, and protect it from moisture absorption. Freezing honey in a well-sealed container won't change its flavour or texture.

When baking, why not replace sugar with an amount of honey equal to three quarters?For example, substitute one cup of sugar with 3/4 cup of honey.

To discover the year-round habits of honeybees, make a beeline for the OBA web at www.ontariobee.com/.