In the past two years, nearly one third of the nations honeybees have died off. Formally known as colony collapse disorder, the vanishing of America’s bees is puzzling farmers and scientists from coast to coast. Many believe the plight is due to pesticides, herbicides, land development, dwindling food supply and a new virus that seems to evade the immune system of honeybees.
Bees don’t just make honey; they play a vital role in the pollination of our fruits and vegetables. According to the US Department of Agriculture, approx. one third of our diet comes from insect pollinated plants and honeybees are responsible for more than 80% of that pollination!
So here’s what you can do to help:
- Replace some of your lawn (or put containers on your balcony) with flower beds.
- Keep your garden as organic as possible! Avoid using pesticides and herbicides. Click here for eco-friendly alternatives.
- Plant native species, which bees love – for example: mint, daisies, strawberries, raspberries, lavender, salvia, asters, sunflowers and verbena.
- Choose plants that flower at different stages in the growing season to provide a constant supply of food for the bees.
- Create homes for the bees – Many of the wild bees you may encounter in your backyard make their homes in the soil or holes in trees. You can encourage bee-residents by providing nesting blocks.
- Eat Haagen Dazs Vanilla Honey Bee Ice Cream to help raise money and awareness about bees (they also sell really cute T-shirts!)
Interesting facts about honey bees:
- When a honey bee returns to the hive, it gives out samples of the flower’s nectar to its hive mates. Then it performs a dance that identifies the distance, direction, quality, and quantity of the food supply. The richer the food source, the longer and more vigorous the dance.
- An average worker bee will only make 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.
- One honey bee colony can produce 60 to 100 pounds of honey per year.
- To produce 1 pound of honey, honey bees must visit 2 million flowers and fly 55,000 miles.
- An average hive can hold about 50,000 bees; a combination of drones (male bees) and worker bees (non-queen female bees).
- A queen bee can live for 2-5 years, a worker bee 1-4 months and a drone 40-50 days
Read More:
Haagen Dazs Help the Honey Bees
Mysterious, Massive Disappearance/Death of the US Honey Bees
Honey Bee Die-off Alarms Beekeepers, Crop Growers And Researchers
20 Comments
June 4, 2008 at 4:26 am
http://goesdownbitter.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/bees-disappear/
If you have any information to share with the Bitter Hinterlands readers, please feel free to share.
June 4, 2008 at 11:29 am
Check out “Every Third Bite”, a documentary about declining bee populations and local honey producers by the Meerkat Media Arts Collective in NYC.
http://meerkatmedia.org/
June 4, 2008 at 12:12 pm
ah-ha! an excuse to plant hoards of mint plants that my father cannot fight!
dancing bumblebees sounds so poetic.
June 4, 2008 at 12:36 pm
This is great information! We’ll definitely be planting things for the honeybees this summer. We had quite a few in our garden last year, and now I can gear certain plants toward attracting them. Thank you!
June 4, 2008 at 1:41 pm
June 4, 2008 at 4:21 pm
You can also help in another way that I don’t think I saw mentioned!! If you go to http://www.greatsunflower.org you can sign up to help solve the disappearing-bees problem. They’ll send you a packet of sunflower seeds, you plant them in your yard (or wherever) and then do some 30 minute “watching for bees” sessions once they’re mature. It helps them research bee activity around the country. I just got my seeds in the mail today ^_^ I love the idea that I can grow sunflowers AND help bee research at the same time.
June 4, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Bees are dying also here in Europe
In Spiegel International you can find good articles on the subject. It seriously worries me…
“Bees in the German state of Baden-Württemburg are dying by the hundreds of thousands. In some places more than half of hives have perished. Government officials say the causes are unclear — but beekeepers are blaming new pesticides.
By Andrew Curry
You can download the complete article over the Internet at the
following URL:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,552556,00.html
June 4, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Let’s all do something to help out our lovely bees!
June 8, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Hi,
A note to let you know about this article, a current issue being addressed by the Earth Vision project -
“Why the Bees Are Dying”
Using spiritual ecology to bring environmentalism to the next level, the EV project has several current newsworthy items.
To access them, visit:
Current Environmental Issues (on the Earth Vision site)
Thanks for your attention,
Josef Graf
Earth Vision + Insight21
answers for the 21st Century
http://www.evsite.net + http://www.insight21.net
June 16, 2008 at 4:10 pm
[...] honey bee. As many of you know, bees are crucial to the pollination of fruits and vegetables. Click here for more info and some good recommendations for what you can do to provide a friendly environment [...]
June 16, 2008 at 5:42 pm
[...] facts and has some good recommendations for what you can do to provide a friendly environment for wild bees, who may have to step in to do the work of the vanishing European [...]
June 23, 2008 at 1:29 pm
[...] out The District Domestic for more on the plight of the honey bee and what you can do to [...]
June 26, 2008 at 5:57 am
Save The Bees of Blue View Lane
http://www.savethebeesshirts.com
Wearing our distinctive logo contributes to our scholarship fund, and supports research into this serious problem with the bees.
Our unique logo also sends a message of concern for all environmental issues from Global Warming to Silent Spring.
July 2, 2008 at 10:39 am
[...] T-shirts for FREE! Jump to Comments A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about The Plight of the Honeybee and talked about ways to help prevent their dying off. Well, Haagen Dazs has sent some t-shirts my [...]
June 30, 2009 at 6:20 pm
I would love a free bee t-shirts I am a Master Gardener and I help the public with questions and education. My garden is a pollinator garden. I would love the shirt to wear and share at the public displays we do, thanks
August 18, 2008 at 9:21 am
Check out our site for fantastic Save The Bees Shirts
And read the linked blog for bits on bees, books, videos, ditties, photos and more. Also articles on green issues generally, solar,wind, etc.
Save The Bees
Wear Our Logo
Support a Student’s Scholarship
And Bee Research
http://WWW.SAVETHEBEESSHIRTS.COM
September 23, 2008 at 2:26 pm
[...] facts and has some good recommendations for what you can do to provide a friendly environment for wild bees, who may have to step in to do the work of the vanishing European [...]
June 25, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Please do not use pesticides on your garden or lawn. The bees are suffering from extreme disease overload and their autoimmune systems are shutting down. When our autoimmune system shuts down we suffer from HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis to name just a few of the diseases.
Dr Reese’s upcoming book is “The Incomparable Honey Bee”, Rocky Mountain Books
June 26, 2009 at 10:51 am
i work with my grandfather in the largest commercial apiary in north carolina. we see the problem is mostly chemicals and bad beemanship. pesticides and chemicals that are in them kill bees and that is the problem there is no way to deny that. jsut last week some had 6 hives die out because some one but a oil based sollution with there fungicide, the fungicide wouldnt have harmed the bees but the sticking sollution which prolongs the fungicides presence does and killed about half of his bees. bad beekeeping is to blame on the fact that people dont know how to take care of bees, or the public dont know that bees are so vital. most cant tell a yellow jacket from a honeybee and its sad so thats another reason. sorry for my gramatically atrociousity.
June 30, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Great Blog! Cheers!!!