flowers

Save the Bees!

Posted on April 16, 2023 by Lisa Orchard

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a week of working and writing. I’m making progress on my story, and I’m excited about it. But enough about that.

This week the weather was spectacular. I ran outside a couple of times and I’m definitely in the mood for summer. My tulips are coming up this year. They didn’t last year, I’m not sure why. I wasn’t expecting them this year, but low and behold there they are.

Summer, Save the Bees!, Lisa Orchard — https://allthefreestock.com/

Which brings me to my topic for today. We need to take special care of our bees and other pollinators. They are vital to the survival of trees and flowers on our planet. According to reports, the honeybee population has declined by 89% and is on the verge of extinction.

Bees, Save the Bees!, Lisa Orchard — https://allthefreestock.com/

There are a variety of factors contributing to this decline, climate change, pesticides, declining habitat, and disease. The honeybee is a critical link to our agriculture. They are the pollinators that keep our flowers growing as well as a variety of food staples we humans eat. I find it ironic that such a tiny insect has such an impact on our earth.

We humans have to wake up and save the bees. If we don’t, and they do go extinct, our supply of fruit and vegetables will be substantially reduced. According to Einstein, we could survive maybe four years without bees. That is a scary thought.

Strawberries, Save the Bees!, Lisa Orchard — https://allthefreestock.com/

So, what can we do to save them? Stop using pesticides. Plant flowers for food for them. The bottom line is we need bees to maintain the quality of life we’ve all enjoyed. Now it’s time to step up to the plate and make sure we can sustain it. We need to do this not just for ourselves but for future generations too.

Flowers, Save the Bees!, Lisa Orchard — https://allthefreestock.com/

We need to do something now. Don’t you agree?

Thanks for stopping by and reading my post. How about you? Do you have any ideas on how to save the bees? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

Holiday Posts, Personal

Save the Bee Day!

Posted on May 20, 2022 by Lisa Orchard

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. Today is May 20^th and it is “Save the Bee Day.” A very important day indeed.

Did you know that without Bees and other pollinators we wouldn’t have flowers or food? What a hefty responsibility for such a tiny insect. The UN says 90% of all flowering plants depend on pollinators to survive and they also affect 35% of global agricultural land. So, saving the bees also fights world hunger.

This type of symbiotic relationship shows how we’re all connected and that one living thing is not more important than another. So, plant some flowers and leave a bowl of water out for the bees. They need sustenance as they go about saving the world.

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Health

Let’s save the Bees!

Posted on March 17, 2014March 17, 2014 by Lisa Orchard

Photo compliments of Creative Commons on Flicker. Photographer Mike Baird

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).

Photo compliments of Flickr Creative Commons by Know Malta by Peter Grima

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. 🙂