Why are bees important and why should we take care of them?
Bees are essential for our lives as they all form part of a very important role in our ecosystem. They are responsible for pollination and are the biggest supporters for the growth of our plants, trees and flowers. They are specifically altered to pollinate, breed and produce food in which they do by transferring pollen through different flowers and keep their cycle going. These pollinators face some environmental challenges through habitat loss, pollution, the use of pesticides and climate change that are life threatening for their species. Bees are required to have a clean & flower rich landscape as they require nectar, pollen and water to survive. Having a diverse and uncontaminated environment is essential for our pollinators as it can be harmful for their health.
Honey Bee pollinating a flower.
Source: “Pollinating by hand: doing bees’ work”
“The Green Peace movement” is a movement that promotes environmentally responsible solutions to defend our world and bring awareness towards a greener and more peaceful environment. This group explains how bees can carry out about 80% percent of pollination worldwide. A single bee is able to pollinate 300 million flowers a day which means they are able to supply about 90% of the world’s nutrition. Without bees I doubt we would have lots of crops that we usually have in our kitchens if it wasn’t for bees and the process of pollination.
Sustainability of Beekeeping
The word sustainability means the ability to maintain and keep at a determined rate and level. Sustainability in the world of bees refers to the interaction that bees and humans have, this means a lot as beekeepers are responsible to keep bees and their colonies on check. Bee keepers make sure they are in production the whole time and they do this by moving bee combs into safety and several areas so that these are able to reproduce and create more and more colonies. For a colony to be successful and healthy, queens are suggested to mate with bee drones (a male honey bee) from different colonies. Beekeepers are able to help with the genetic of bee population by keeping only local bees and never importing other ones from different colonies to allow natural mating.
Beekeeper checking up on bees. Source: Lancaster
Another reason for why beekeeping is super important is because this practice protects and helps preserve bees. For the past four years it has been said that the decline of bees has increased due to a variety of different factors. In a recent article from Neilson S. called “More Bad Buzz For Bees: Record number Of Honeybee Colonies Died Last Winter” it explains that the latest survey they released back in 2019 U.S. said that beekeepers have lost about 40% of honeybee colonies during the winter time and this annual loss was higher than the average. This could also depend on the bee’s local environment. They really must watch on the how these tiny creatures use best the resources they have during the spring so that during the winter time they have enough to survive. Something that could affect bees which could impact on the annual decline of bees is, the extremely cold winters and wet summers. This can make bees stressed, bring starvation and even diseases like I said before. To be able to fix this world from bee declination throughout the years we must need to fix the dysfunctional and toxic agricultural system that we have.
England, UK
A beekeeper from the UK keeps bees arranged and in form to collect their honey.
Source: Getty Images
Blog Post By: Andrea Uc
References
Beekeeping: Definition of Beekeeping by Oxford Dictionary on Lexico.com also meaning of Beekeeping. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2020, from https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/beekeeping
Honey, Recipes, Research, Information. (2020, September 14). Retrieved September 19, 2020, from https://www.honey.com/about-honey/how-honey-is-made
Why Beekeeping is Important. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2020, from https://beekeepinginsider.com/why-beekeeping-is-important/
Schwartz, J., Kuenzle, M., & Pinsky, D. (2014, June 18). Save the Bees. Retrieved September 19, 2020, from https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/sustainable-agriculture/save-the-bees/
Neilson, S. (2019, June 19). More Bad Buzz For Bees: Record Number Of Honeybee Colonies Died Last Winter. Retrieved September 19, 2020, from https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/06/19/733761393/more-bad-buzz-for-bees-record-numbers-of-honey-bee-colonies-died-last-winter
Major Threats to Pollinators. (2014, April 15). Retrieved October 02, 2020, from http://greatpollinatorproject.org/conservation/major-threats-to-pollinators