Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today and I’m talking about Bees. That’s right. Bees. I received an e-mail early this morning and it was a call to action.
A call to action to boycott a company that manufactures a pesticide that is detrimental to bees’ health. This started me thinking, why would we need to boycott this company. Why are bees so important?
So, I did some research and I found bees are extremely important to our way of life. I was totally shocked. Who would’ve thought this tiny insect would have such an impact.
They do though, without bees there would be no cross-pollination. Cross-pollination occurs when a bee takes pollen from one flower and delivers it to another flower. Without cross-pollination, there would be no flowers or trees. In addition, without trees there’d be no oxygen.
I bet you can see where I’m going with this.
It’s a scary thought. Did you know more than one hundred agricultural crops in the United States are pollinated by bees? That means bees are essential for the production of nearly seven billion dollars’ worth of crops in Arizona alone.
So I can see the growing concern for keeping our bee population thriving. It’s not thriving though. In fact, bees have been disappearing from the hives. The normal declination rate is five percent each winter; this rate has risen to almost fifty percent in some cases. Scientists are calling this Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
What is the cause of this disorder? Scientists aren’t sure. There are many who believe pesticides are the problem. Others believe a virus has weakened the bees’ immune system. Still others hold onto the theory that the use of cell phones messes with the bees’ ability to find their way back to their hives. Something about the magnetic fields that cell phones generate.
Whatever the reason, this is a cause for alarm. According to Albert Einstein, “Mankind would be extinct four years after honeybees disappeared from the face of the earth.”
What can we do? So far, scientists have only speculated on the causes of CCD. Until we know the real causes behind it, we’ll have to be cognizant about the bees and refrain from swatting them with a newspaper. They’re good for the earth.
In addition, if you’re interested in helping them, plant some flowers this spring and feed the bees. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and reading my post. If you have any thoughts on the bee situation please leave a comment. I’d love to read it! 🙂
For some interesting facts about honey bees, click the link below!
http://christinamercer.com/honeybees/
***I would like to thank beachbistro.com and Joyfusions.com for some of the information in this post. The links are below.
http://www.beachbistro.com/the-bees-knees-a-drink-to-bug-our-politicians/
http://joyfusions.com/what-is-pollination-and-why-honey-bees-are-important-pollinators/
The bees are so important to our life, it is amazing all that they mean to us. Sad that we often overlook the little things isn’t it? Thank you for posting this.
Thanks for stopping by Maggie and sharing your thoughts. I agree it is sad that we overlook bees when they play such an important role in our lives. It just goes to show you that everything and everyone is important in the large scheme of things.
So true. 🙂
One day I hope to keep a bee box for our bumbles, I just hope it’s not too late by then.
Thanks for stopping by J.R.! 🙂 Yes, it’s so sad that our bee population is diminishing so quickly. Best of luck with your Bee Box endeavors!
It’s strange that people can’t correlate their demise with ours. Bust still, we’ll learn the hard way as we always do.
I know what you mean J.R. denial isn’t just a river in Egypt! 😉
🙂
This is something that I have worried about for many years now – I have noticed a decline in my area (Michigan) – I have a huge garden and preserve much of my own food so this is very troublesome. Thanks for sharing! I’m visitng from SITS Sharefest.
Thanks
Angie
http://www.godsgrowinggarden.com/
Thanks for stopping by Angie. I’m worried as well. I’m wondering what shape our planet is going to be in when my kids have grown. I live in Michigan as well and I’ve noticed more wasps and yellow jackets, but not as many honey bees.
We were just talking about this at work yesterday! We were having a “healthy breakfast” as part of a fitness-related initiative and the discussion turned to how beneficial honey is to our lives. I mentioned the concern about CCD and most of my colleagues–even though we’re in the middle of farm country–had never heard about it. Thanks for helping to get the word out that this is a serious issue!
Thanks for stopping by Julie-Ann! You are so right, honey is extremely beneficial to our lives! You’re entirely welcome! I’m glad I became aware of this growing concern and I like to shout out about this type of thing! 🙂
I am a Neal’s Yard Remedies Organic Consultant. Until then I was not aware of the plight of the bees. NYR Organics has a line called Bee Lovely. They also have a Campaign designed to raise awareness and to ban deadly neonics. They are at 75,000 signatures not far from the 100,000 target. Visit http://bit.ly/beelovely_us
Visiting from SITS Sharefest.
Barbara @ http://www.allmylivesnow.com
Thanks for stopping by Barbara, I will definitely stop by and vote! Thanks for making me aware of your campaign! 🙂