The Obama Administration is taking steps to boost the rapidly declining honeybee population.
In their plan, the White House will ask for $82 million to plant gardens in federal buildings across the country and cultivate 7 million acres of federal land.
Research shows in the last 50-years, the honeybee population has declined to about half of what it used to be, with the U.S. losing around 30-percent of its honeybee population every winter.
However, the crops that require the honeybee's pollination have increased by 300-percent.
Experts say a poor nutrition, lack of genetic diversity, pesticides, and disease spread by mites are the main causes to the decline in honeybee populations.
Bob Frey has been a beekeeper for 38-years and cultivates around 60,000 bees on his apiary out in Monmouth, Illinois. He said when he first started, almost all of his bees survived.
Now, Frey said he's lucky if 20 percent of his bees make it through the year.
"They need food, they need nutrition," Frey said. "In the old days you didn't have to worry about that."
Frey said he is glad the White House is getting more involved in the fight for honeybees.
"We've lost so many bees from the lack of source of nectar, it seems like a good idea to me," said Frey.
The parasitic Varroa mite is also a huge problem for honeybees, as it carries pathogens that kill the honeybee once the mite starts feeding off it.
Frey said the best thing people can do to help boost the honeybee population, aside from becoming a beekeeper, is to plant gardens with flowers that provide pollen for the bees.
"A healthy bee is going to fight disease better than anything else," said Frey.
Frey said in the last several years, interests in beekeeping have increased tremendously. As a response, Frey has a beekeeping club, the Western Illinois Beekeeper Association, that meets monthly with local beekeepers and state bee experts.