Standing in the middle of a five-acre field of crimson clover, Mike Sandridge stops in his tracks and stares out over the tops of the vivid windswept flower tops.

"Can you hear that?" he asks. The field is literally humming, so intensely you can feel it in your clothes. Focusing about three feet above the field, you immediately see why the air is vibrating around you.

About six million honey bees have created a highway of activity above the field, loosely forming two mid-air lanes heading to and from the 60-plus white boxes situated at the far end of the field.

While Sandridge's bees are making honey at the moment, they are actually on call for their second, more important job as regional pollinators.

Sandridge, who is the owner of Sandridge and Sons Honey in Hanover, and his roughly six million little buddies are registered with a new Internet-based bee rental service offered by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS). Thanks to the new Virginia Pollinator Web site, the saying "busy as a bee" has taken on a new meaning in Virginia. As easy as you can rent a car over the Internet, local farmers can now rent a dozen hives of local honey bees to help out on the farm during pollination, which is an integral part of the growing process.

The Web site includes a region-by-region list of available beekeepers and a "Bees Wanted" section for bee-needy farmers. The average price of a single rental hive is about $50 for a two week contract.