Recently, you can see a lot in the news about the bees being endangered. We, humans are also responsible for the two main causes, which is the loss of their habitat and using harmful pesticides. There is also another reason with no current scientific explanation, called colony collapse disorder.
Bees are doing a very important job for us: they pollinate most of our fruits and vegetables. 90% of the worlds’ nutrition depends on honeybees. However, we seem to ignore this fact. Since the first worrying reports about a decade ago, on a large scale (international corporations and organisations) not much happened to save the bees. There is a slight ray of hope though, all the efforts by local governments and communities are paying off, but only lately. The Scottish Government for example just announced a few days ago, that they are launching a new plan to protect native polluters.
Globally, small groups of individuals are teaming up for community and guerrilla gardening, making urban areas greener, cooler as in temperature, more liveable and bee friendly.
If you have a garden, a patio, or even a balcony you can be part of this fantastic movement and help to save the bees.
For a start, you can test your knowledge, how much do you know about bees? Here’s a quiz: Honey Bee Quiz provided by Rattan Direct. It’s a short and very informative quiz.
So, if you have any outside space, plant bee friendly plants! Honey bees really like lavender, which does not require too much pampering from you either, happy with a little bit of regular watering. You can also air dry them and preserve their wonderful scent by filling small jute bags with them. They also great to keep the moths away when you place the little bag into your wardrobe. Crocus in spring, starflower in summer and the late bloomer goldenrod in autumn all belong to their favourites. They of course love lots of native British roses too. Plus in return they will reward us with delicious honey! There are so many benefits to raw honey, learn more about it at Gold Bee Nutrition.
Gardening and planting a few pots of pretty flowers are good for everyone not just for the bees.
Disclaimer: this article was written in collaboration with Rattan Direct.
2 comments
We have a line of lavender bushes outside our house and the honey bees go crazy out there every summer; nice to know we’re playing our part in the preservation of honey bees! x
Love these photos!
I am so about save the bees and I’m really pushing that on my kids too! It’s so important!