Ericka McGhee 4/21/26 - Bees (free choice)

 My family owns a river house on the Rappahannock. A few years ago, my cousin got bees and put them down there. We used to rent out the farmland around us to a farmer nearby. We stopped renting them out right before we got bees. After we took over the field and stopped having crops, the number of plants that appeared around us was incredible. There are types of plants I have never seen before. The bees have kept up the plants and allowed the entire field to become filled with naturally growing plants. These bees have helped us so much by keeping our land healthy by regenerating the plants after the winter. Even though the bees can be scary when we go down to the water, I know they are doing so much more for us than I can see. Having these bees around our land the past few years has kept our land and plants healthy and helped keep our land beautiful. After we got rid of the farm land, the fields looked really sad and empty, but over the last few years, our land has become bright and vibrant. It was amazing to see how much bees can truly help and regenerate plants in person. Once we had our discussion about bees in class, it reminded me of how much our land has changed over the past few years and how hard-working the bees are to keep our land up.

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