Gone are the days when I used to shriek in fear at the sight of a bee buzzing anywhere nearby. I was introduced to the value and true personality of the bee by my husband who used to keep bees and sell his own honey. I have learned, through him, to admire bees and I no longer cringe whenever they buzz around me, instead I find myself trying to get a closer look at this incredible creature who does so much for us.
Unfortunately honeybee numbers have dwindled immensely over the last five decades. Their decline has been attributed to several factors including, disease, exposure to pesticides, climate change, and a mono-crop approach to agriculture.
Regardless of the causes, the decline of the honeybee – officially called Colony Collapse disorder, or CCD – will eventually have a negative affect on all of us.
Why Bees Are So Important
As a pollinator, bees are crucial to our food supply. They pollinate more than three quarters of our flowering crops. If flowers are not pollinated, they will not bear fruit. That means that honey bees are responsible for wild and domestic apples, pears, strawberries, oranges, cucumbers, blueberries, broccoli, almonds, and much more.
Honey is a very important bee product. It is very nutritious, containing at least 75 active compounds in its raw, unfiltered state. It has lots of vitamins, antibacterial action, and is even an exceptional treatment for burns. A spoonful of honey will even soothe a nighttime cough and sore throat.
Bees even have an effect on our clothing. About 80 percent of all cotton crops are pollinated by honeybees. ( by the way, cotton crop are one of the most heavily sprayed with pesticide. You can help by buying organic cotton.)
More and more people are stepping up to help the bees by setting up beekeeping in their yards. Even if you can’t go that far, you can still help by planting bee-friendly, flowering plants, trees and shrubs such as oregano, purple coneflower, bee balm, strawberries, squash, boxwood, and butterfly bush. You can plant fruit trees as well. Do not use chemical pesticides or fungicides on your bee-friendly plants, or anywhere else in your yard for that matter. Here in Quebec it is actually illegal, under the Animal Protection Act, to “ …..spray, by sprinkler or otherwise, or dust, using chemical or biological products that are toxic to bees, a fruit tree or a plant of a species or category designated by regulation while the fruit tree or plant is in bloom…” I had never heard anything about this and would imagine most people here haven’t but I was happy that even bees are “protected” by law.
I’m curious to know if laws like this are the norm in other areas or if we are the exception.
