Maggie Bailey
Fascinating fact: did you know that to make a jar of honey, bees have to fly the equivalent distance (to us) of 1.5 times round the world? Amazing, eh? Bees are certainly very busy little insects. They are actually making honey to store as their winter food, when they are unable to gather nectar from flowers. They are vital to the survival of certain plants by cross-pollinating them, i.e. carrying their pollen between flowers.
Without the activity of bees, we would not have apples, mangoes, cherries, melons, almonds and a lot of other fruits and nuts. Bees are so essential to human agriculture, but their numbers are declining, so we should protect them as much as we can. Here are some simple ways we can help bees:
- Plant local wild flowers in your garden or a window-box, to encourage bees to visit;
- Leave some fresh water out for them, in a bowl or birdbath;
- Don’t use pesticides on your garden plants, if you can avoid it, as these can harm bees.
I saw loads of bees buzzing all over a bank of lavender today! A very encouraging site.
Yes this is very interesting and I love honey.
Thank you Carol DM.
Yes, we definitely should protect bees, so this is a great post.
TY! 🙂
Bees along with ants are the hardest workers on this earth!
Yes, indeed they are Suny. Ingenious insects!
Amazing
Thank you Charito!
Wonderful post and beautiful photo!
Thank you so much ellie925! The photo was provided by the editors here actually: it is better than the one I originally submitted, so I am glad they changed it!
Very informative Maggie
Thank you Kathy! I hope it inspires more people to help bees as much as they can.
Great post! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Benedict!
Excellent Blog. Plus without bees, we don’t have plant life period! They pollinate the female flower of plants, where we get vegetables and flowers from. Plus they also pollinate the female flowers on trees that our fruits grow on, Never kill bees. Help in keeping the species growing instead. Amen to the bee keepers.
Thank you Susan! Yes, it is so important for us to protect bees, not just for their own sake as a species, but also because otherwise we are going to really stuggle to grow crops to feed the world in the future!
Great post, Maggie. My Dad and my uncle used to keep bees, and I have very sweet(!) memories of sucking the honey from the comb 🙂
Thanks Norman. I remember as a child eating honey straight from the comb as well.
So beauty
TY Olga!