By flying from flower to flower and collecting pollen and nectar, the bee helps to pollinate the flowers. This includes our vegetables and fruit as well as food for our livestock.
Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is a phenomenon facing honeybees in which worker bees from a beehive fail to return to the hive. Much of the cause is speculated to be pesticide use, namely neonicotinoid. Other factors are Varroa mites and their pesticides, Nosema apis parasites, and Israeli acute paralysis virus, or environmental change-related stress, malnutrition, and migratory beekeeping. With no help from our pollinating friends we, and our pets, would lose many basic foods like fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy. Plant shortage then leads to a great void in our oxygen source. We need to raise healthy honeybees and promote solitary bees.
What can we do?
- Plant bee-friendly gardens
- Roof top apartment urban gardens
- Use safe pesticides & organic practices
- Leave that clover in the lawn
- Promote rural biodiversity
- Leave fencerows to grow wild & natural
- Promote solitary bee pollinators
- Create urban meadows
A Bee-Friendly Garden has:
- Native Plants
- Single (not double) flower tops
- Non-hybrids (more pollen & seed)
- Varieties to give season-round blooms
- A bee bath for thirsty bees
- Undisturbed area to build homes
- Hand made houses