Help Save The Bees!

Honey bees are the world’s most important pollinator of food crops. It is estimated that one third of the food that we consume each day relies on pollination mainly by bees, but also by other insects, birds and bats. Did you know that bees are dying at rates that we have never seen before?

Have you heard of Colony Collapse Disorder? 

• Colony Collapse Disorder is a complex global phenomenon with many causes, resulting in a tragic loss of bees all over the world. 
  

What are the causes of Colony Collapse Disorder?

• Modern agriculture and industry have created a host of sublethal stressors that damage bees’ cognition. For example, diesel fumes and neonicotinoid pesticides both reduce bees’ foraging efficiency by disturbing chemical communications in their brains. 
• Modern intensive agriculture disturbs bee nutrition, which impairs their brain. 
• Monoculture is the agricultural practice of producing or growing a single crop, plant, or livestock species, variety, or breed in a field or farming system at a time. With the creation of monocultures encompassing hundreds and sometimes thousands of acres, farms are no longer able to provide the living environment necessary to maintain wild honeybee colonies. Although, say, a large blueberry 'farm' may provide an immense supply of flowers for nectar and pollen, being a monoculture means that there is only one plant, and this sole plant may only flower for a few weeks or even a few days of the year. This doesn't provide enough time for the honeybees to collect their needed supplies for the remainder of the year while the monoculture fields are essentially floral deserts. It also eliminates the various 'wild pollinators' from bumblebees to beetles, who are likewise unable to survive amongst the dearth of flowers. -theecologist.org
• Climate change interferes with the relationship between bees and the plants on which they feed.
• Managed honey bees are afflicted by a range of pests, viruses and predators that have been spread around the world as a side-effect of international trade.

Read more on The Conversation: Ten years after the crisis, what is happening to the world's bees?

5 things you can do to help save bees! 

1. Plant bee-friendly flowers and flowering herbs in your garden and yard: Help mitigate the affect of monoculture agriculture. 
2. Don't use chemicals and pesticides to treat your lawn or garden:  Pesticides, specifically neo-nicotinoid varieties have been one of the major culprits in Colony Collapse Disorder. Use Neem oil, soap and water instead. 
   
3. Buy local, raw honey: Just like humans, bees can get sick. That is why it is so important to buy local honey. The second you open a jar of honey from another region, you are realising foreign spores into the air, which can harm your local bees. Buy raw to avoid chemical consumption. 
   
4. Bees are thirsty: Set some water out for them. 
   
5. Buy local, organic food: Buying local and organic food means that you are not supporting the corporate agriculture industry which is continuing to harm the bees. Buying from local organic farmers ensures that your food doesn't come with pesticides and is not from grown through monoculture practises. 
   

Read more on The Queen of the Sun: What are the bees telling us?

BEE INFORMED! - BEE DOCUMENTARIES 

Queen of Sun Trailer | More Than Honey Trailer | Vanishing of Bees Trailer | Rotten Trailer

Queen of the Sun - What are the bees telling us?

More Than Honey

Vanishing of the Bees

Rotten - Honey Bees Part

If you are interested, an interesting fictional novel called The World Without Us, is about the loss of bees and climate change due to human activity. You can read more about it here: https://literature.savvity.net/discussions/5aca8b5c1d41c825b8192d02 🐝🐝🐝

Earlier this morning I was reading about beekeeping. I was trying to figure out how much room I would need if I wanted to start a hive or two and also how much it would cost to get started. Of course I found the  coolest beehive system ever!  I would love to get one of these Flow Hives!!!!

I forgot to write in the article... If you start beekeeping, make sure to plant extra flowers for them in order to make sure they have enough to feed on. In more urban areas, which you are not in, but for others to know, bees no not have enough food to eat so it is actually a bad idea for people in urban areas to keep bees. In those cases, growing flowers is much more effective for helping the bees. Another thing, is that if one has a natural bee hive in the yard, please let them be! Don’t kill them. 😿

I’ll have to look at the link later tammie!

Funny, I read about almost this recently. It was about bumblebees and other pollinators as well.

That about urban areas being harder for bees got me thinking. In Sweden there is a company, Bee Urban, that rents out bee hives that they place on the roof of Kulturhuset (The culture house) in the middle of Stockholm. Below is a link to an article in Swedish about the company. They were founded by two biologists at Stockholm University. The honey they produce goes back to those renting the hives.

https://www.su.se/samverkan/företaget-som-ger-honungen-en-bra-bismak-1.102349

I did not know about that if open a jar of honey from another region, you are realising foreign spores into the air, which can harm your local bees.   I'll make sure I only ever buy locally sourced produce in the future!

I no longer live in a true "Urban area." I live in a very small town with about 10,000 people. Close to hills and mountains with lots of wide open spaces. There are lots of wildflowers around. I also have 3 Champagne trees on my property that have a long blooming period. But I am planning on planting some Ice Plants in one area (for a drought tolerant erosion control) and I have seeded for more wildflowers. 

#7 Very cool! What are Ice plants?

In my research I noticed that bees are often sold and transported from one state to another. Wouldn't this also cause a problem? 

Yes! And the reason that they are transported is because of crop farming that is not diversified. The biggest problem for example is the Almond farming in California. If you read up on it, it turns out that almonds are not good for the environment since the demand is too high.

Not sure about how far bees can travel, like if it is the different states, cities or countries that is the problem. I know moving bees internationally is very bad.

Maybe we can start a thread and pick a documentary about bees to watch and then we can discuss what we found to be most interesting etc?? 😊

Sure that would be fun!

#12 do you know of any documentaries?