Bees
World Bee Day: May 20
Bees are essential to life as we know it.
United Nations World Bee Day
May 20th was designated by the United Nations as World Bee Day. Why this date? Because it coincides with the birthday of the man who pioneered modern beekeeping techniques in the 18th century, Anton Janša.
Bees and Other Pollinators
We depend on Bees and other pollinators for the biodiversity within our environment. There are different kinds of pollinators, invertebrate pollinators, vertebrate pollinators and mammal pollinators. Examples of these include bees, hummingbirds, bats, butterflies, birds, ants, wasps, moths, hoverflies, mosquitoes, flies, lemurs, and beetles (just to name a few). However, bees are the most well-known pollinators. Bees are essential to life on Earth as we have come to know it. They are also essential to the biodiversity we all depend on for survival. Let’s think about our daily meals for a moment. How many times have you snacked on apples, melons, cranberries or almonds? Or sat down for a meal that contained pumpkin, squash or broccoli? These are just a few examples of agricultural crops that we would not have without the pollination that bees provide. Our diet would change drastically if we were to lose bees from our ecosystem. We would be reduced to eating starches and fatty foods, as fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds are pollinated primarily by bees and would no longer be available to us. Bees pollinate more than 90 crops that are commercially produced to date. Roughly 1/3 of the food Americans eat were pollinated by honeybees. 90% of the world’s flowering plants depend on animal pollination. Pollination is key to food security.
Bee Populations
The Great Decline
Globally pollinators are facing a real decline. Bee populations especially have declined greatly in recent years. We have seen a species extinction rate of 100 to 1,000 times higher than the normal rate in recent years due to human activity. They are being affected by a culmination of factors that are all driven by human activity. These include climate change, habitat loss, and the overuse of pesticides. Diseases and pests are also factors that are attributed to the loss of pollinators. There are 25,000-30,000 species of bees - of these only about 10,000 have been identified. With habitat loss and global climate change we can’t be certain that we know what pollinators are being wiped out without our knowledge, since most species have only been documented in North America and Europe. African species and South American Species have not been closely monitored so we may be losing entire species of pollinators and not even know it. Ensuring biodiversity amongst the 90 percent of wild flowering plants that depend on bee pollination is crucial to rebuilding a resilience in our agroecosystem and adapting to climate change.
Bees are great pollinators, however that is not the only service that they provide to our environment. They offer other benefits to the environment including high-quality food, honey, royal jelly and pollen as well as honeycomb, beeswax and venom.
In 2017 there were 7 types of bee species that were added to the US Endangered Species List by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Present day around 35% of invertebrate pollinators (bees and butterflies) and 17% of vertebrate pollinators (bats) are facing extinction globally.
“Human beings have fabricated the illusion that in the 21st century they have the technological prowess to be independent of nature. Bees underline the reality that we are more, not less, dependent on nature’s services in a world of close to 7 billion people”
- Achim Steiner, Executive Director UN Environment Program (UNEP)
Life In a Bee-Hive
Honey Bees are vegetarians that use nectar and pollen as their primary source of food. They use the nectar they collect and convert it into honey, which provides the bees with carbohydrates. This in turn gives them the energy they need to fly and do their daily activities. They use the pollen they collect as protein and it also provides them with the minerals, fatty acids, and vitamins they need in their diet. A bee colony is typically made up of anywhere from 10, 000 bees to 100,000 bees. A typical colony is roughly 20,000 bees and can harvest up to 125lbs of pollen in any given year. Since the cost of honey is $1.97 per lb. this crop adds great value to our U.S. agricultural industry.
A typical honey bee colony is organized into 3 groups:
The Worker Bees – females that do not lay eggs, the labor force of the colony, they rear the young bees. They are the smallest bees in the hive. Their life span ranges from 6 weeks in the summer to 9 months in the winter.
The Drone Bees – males on standby for mating with the queen. Death instantly follows mating. They are typically only present in the hive in the late spring and summer.
A Queen Bee – only a single queen can exist at any given time. She is the only one to lay eggs in the hive.
She mates only once in her life and remains fertile for the rest of it. The queen lives for several years and produces eggs her entire life span. Upon her death a new queen is raised by the worker bees.
Save the Bees
It is not too late to help to save these amazing creatures, that offer so much to our survival. Some things we can do, as individuals, to help reverse the decline of pollinators include:
Planting a diverse set of native nectar bearing plants that flower at different times of the year, so the bees and other pollinators can find food throughout the year. – Marigolds and sunflowers are great to be grown on balconies, terraces, and gardens.
Buy raw honey and other hive products from farmers and local beekeepers.
Avoid using pesticides, fungicides or herbicides in your garden.
Support sustainable agricultural practices by buying products that do not use pesticides, fungicides or herbicides.
Protect wild colonies whenever possible.
If you see a bee that is struggling – gently put the bee on a bee-friendly flower nearby, if there are none, provide some sugar water (50%white or raw sugar /50% water) in a bottle cap nearby so it can get its energy back to be able to fly again.
Make a water fountain by leaving a water bowl outside.
Raise awareness among children, family and friends.
Preserve old meadows -only cut grass on meadows once the nectar-bearing plants have finished blooming.
Set up a pollinator garden/farm on your balconies, terraces and gardens.
How Cities Help Bees - How Bees Help Cities
Bees living in urban areas live healthier lives than their counterparts in rural habitats. Its colonies are larger, better fed and less prone to disease. Urban colonies also outlast their country cousins. Urban garden flowers provide a diverse and consistent diet for bees and that the use of fewer pesticides may be the cause of bees thriving in the city. Urban vegetable gardens have been identified as particularly good spots for pollinators because they provide a combination of fruit and vegetable flowers, as well as corners full of weeds and native plants.
It is possible to develop small structures to accommodate native bees which provide vital nesting habitat, consisting of a structure similar to a birdhouse containing a series of exposed tubes that bees can lay their eggs on. Nesting bees desperately seek appropriate nesting sites, sometimes even nesting at the ends of old garden hose nozzles, openings in metallic garden furniture, or the hollow ends of wind bells.