Lots of simple things to do for Green Recovery
Bees, The Most Important Beings On planet Earth
In this post:
Why Are Bees Important?
1. Protect Bee habitat
2. For Bee Emergencies
3. Create a Bee Bath
4. Build homes for Bees
5. Plant a Bee-friendly garden of flowers and Trees
6. Support Beekeepers
…a list at the bottom of other posts about Simple things to do for Green Recovery
Bee-ing grateful to our pollinators
Bees Are Now Officially Declared
The Most Important Beings On Earth
2019 – … Unfortunately, multiple species of bees have been placed on the list of endangered animals with studies showing a rapid global decline in the bee population.
Dr. McGavin, entomologist, academic, and explorer, who has dedicated over 25 years to teaching students at Oxford, stresses the importance of bees in the global ecosystem: “The critical symbiosis between insects, especially bees, and flowering plants has created a rich diversity of life on Earth. The origin of bees coincides with the main radiation of the angiosperms approximately 100 million years ago.”
“There are around 20,000 species of bee (not just honey bees!) and many are solitary species,” elaborates Dr. McGavin. “Bees are essential to our survival—without the world’s bees, we would have to change our eating habits dramatically. No flowers, no fruits, no vegetables.”
[Well among other reasons….
Biodiversity
Bees … play an important role in ecological balance preservation and natural biodiversity. Pollination, one of their obvious ecosystem services makes food production possible. This, in turn, protects and maintains the ecosystems and the plant and animal species, as well. At the same time, bees contribute to enriching genetic and biotic diversity.
Numerous creatures rely on bees for their own existence. Badgers will dig out the nest to feast on the juicy grubs, there are bee-eaters that consume them, and a whole lot of other creatures prey on, or parasitize upon the bees, including the endangered oil beetle.
Believe it or not,
you have a bee to thank
for every 1 in 3 bites of food you eat.
The representative from The Honeybee Conservancy added “Populations are declining due to a variety of factors including human development, pesticides, disease and a changing climate.” That’s why various organizations and volunteers are banding together to help out our pollinators by spreading awareness and investing time and money to pass legislation that would help preserve many bee species by banning various insecticides.
Pollination and/or Honey?
Honey bees make honey and pollinate.
Mason bees only pollinate are far less aggressively protective.
Nature’s Busy Pollinators
Mason bees are among the easiest to raise, while also being gentle and amazing pollinators. Mason bees nest in pre-made holes and hole-nesting bees represent about 25% of the world’s bee species. We can increase mason bee populations by raising them in our backyards and gardens, which is a great way to supplement the stressed honeybee, sustain our future food supply, and provide nesting sites for other native bees, too.
A female mason bee carries pollen mainly on the underside of her hairy abdomen and scrapes the pollen off within her nesting hole. She carries the pollen dry on her belly and it falls off easily as she moves among flowers. Mason bees are generalists that love to visit a variety of flowers.
Mason bees are an awesome cross-pollinator because they busily flit back and forth between branches and trees, instead of focusing on stripping pollen and nectar from one location.
Hardworking yet Gentle
Mason bees are easy to maintain because of their solitary by nature. About 90% of the world’s 21,000 bee species are solitary, meaning that they do not live in a hive. Female Mason bees build their own nests, gather their own food, and lay their own eggs. With all this work to do, Mason bees are far too busy to be aggressive towards people. They only sting as a last resort, and the venom they release from a sting is very mild. If you’re allergic to honeybees, Mason bees are a great alternative. You can watch them work without fear of being stung. Mason bees are easy to care for because they will nest in pre-made holes and will spend the winter hibernating in their own waterproof cocoons.
6 Things You Can Do To Help Bees Survive
1. Protect Bee habitat
How to care for mason bees year-round The best time of year to harvest and clean bee cocoons is between October and December. The bees will be fully formed by then. The best time to release them is in March or April.
Long-term Mason Bee care
Adult Mason bees stop foraging by early summer, and so you will stop seeing bee activity in the garden. The cocoons that have been laid inside the nesting boxes will mature over the summer until they are fully developed as adults by the fall. The adults overwinter inside their cocoons. Care can be taken to ensure higher emergence of young bees in the spring by protecting the developing larvae, and harvesting and cleaning the cocoons.
STORING NESTING TUBES AND BLOCKS (July to August)
Blocks and tubes can stay outside, but you can have better population growth if you move the nesting tubes or boxes to a protected storage area to prevent predators from feeding on the developing bees. …
HARVESTING COCOONS (October to November)
Cocoons can be removed from the nesting block or tube, being careful not to damage the adult bee inside. …
An Introduction to Overwintering Honey Bees
Forming the Winter Cluster
Bees have several ways to combat the cold weather. But the most effective is the winter cluster, an incredible achievement of collaboration to huddle around the queen for the entire winter to keep her warm.
2. Bee Emergencies
To feed your bee, mix up some organic granulated cane sugar or refined white sugar crystals to create a sugar-water solution. A 1:1 mix (50%/50%) is appropriate, and this can be achieved simply by stirring the sugar rapidly in room temperature water. Offer just a drop or two, to begin with, in a shallow lid or teaspoon placed near the bee’s head.
When drinking, you’ll see her long tongue pointing down from her head. If you see her tongue extended, try placing drops of sugar-water mix directly beneath the tip (it functions like a straw). Not too much as a weakened bee may be weak and clumsy.
In most cases, your bee will recover quickly after drinking some sugar-water. Offering sugar-water often works even if it appears to you as though your bee is dead! ? It may take a few minutes or a few hours for her to recover, depending on how weak she was to begin with. Don’t be surprised to find your bee gone if you’re not keeping a constant eye on her!
Fungi Perfecti is a company founded by Paul Stamets, currently producing mushroom mycelium that are beneficial for both human and bee health. Working alongside scientists at Washington State University, they have demonstrated that extracts of polypore mushrooms confer an immune benefit to bees. They have also been working with beekeepers, and hope soon to introduce a native bee feeder that anyone can put in their own garden, so bees may sip beneficial mycelium to boost their immunities. In the meantime, they have suggestions for mushrooms you can grow yourself to provide an immunity boost to your local bees. Read more
Fungi Perfecti has discovered a way to kill Varroa mites without killing bees: a mushroom.
Each time we develop a new Bee Saving Paper we test it on bees. So we know if they like it or not. Bees are interested in this paper only in emergency situations when there are no flowers.
Since childhood, I “save” bugs, bees and other little creatures I meet along the paths and parks of my hometown. A few years ago I noticed more and more bees on the ground. Lots of them were dead, others were struggling. All I could do at that point was to put them on the side so nobody would step on them.
I started to dig in the internet and I found out that you can actually save those dying bees by giving them a drop of water with some sugar mixed in. It will make them stronger and they will be able to fly further.
With this inspiration, I went to my colleagues at the ad agency, where I worked. We’ve been working on the project ever since, engaging more and more people, without them the Bee Saving Paper wouldn’t exist today. Bee saving paper is a chance to work on something I truly believed in. It’s not easy to turn a prototype into a real commercial product, available for everyone. But I’m still working on it to make it available for everyone.
Anna Gadecka
Queen Bee at Bee Saving Paper
“The paper is perfect for packaging, price tags, greeting cards, bags and much more”
Meet the Norwich man who has created a bee life-saving card
2019 … Mr Harris, 40, said: “We are trying to inspire people to connect with the bees in their local neighbourhood. In cities we don’t feel like we are connected to nature but there is nature all around us.”
Taking Bee Saviour Behaviour to the streets with a sugar solution carrier for your wallet or purse; inspiring new communities of Bee Saviour Citizens
Each Bee Saviour Card is refillable and handmade in our workshop. Our ambition is that 100% of the Bee Saviour Cards we produce are made out of old cards destined for landfill and so you’re also reducing plastic waste.
We know that the act of reviving 1 bee won’t reverse bee population decline.
What we do know is the moment has come for the global community of humans to feel connected to their local bees and become motivated to take action to increase bee populations and promote biodiversity. https://saviourbees.co.uk/
There’s never been a time the world has needed Bee Saviour Citizens more!
3. Create a Bee Bath
Reward these busy bodies by making a bee water fountain. These little ones need water after buzzing around all day. Leaving a clean, shallow water bowl, with rocks or sticks in it so that bees don’t drown, is a good way to give the bees a resting spot and some necessary refreshment.
can bee other than marbles….just plain rocks will also work.
4. Build homes for bees
You can make your own, or buy them…..Bee Hotels.
Brilliant Bee Hotels from BEE SAVIOUR BEHAVIOUR
5. Plant a bee-friendly garden of flowers and Trees
Give bees food they like by growing native plants in your garden. Plants and pollinators have a mutually beneficial and symbiotic relationship. They need one another to survive and have therefore evolved that way. Native, local plants are the ones that native bees will be adapt to the most. Planting a diverse variety of native plants which flower at different times of the year can make a huge difference for pollinators.
6. Support beekeepers
to save Honey Bees
Thermosolar Hive:
healthy bees & healthy honey
The Thermosolar Hive™ is a super hive consisting of special parts that can warm the brood chamber to temperatures that eliminate Varroa Destructor mites by simply using sunshine. The thermosolar ceiling transforms the sunshine into heat that heats the brood chamber. In the front wall of each box there is a supplementary thermosolar window that helps to warm the hive during “thermotherapy”. Mostly it increases the long-term thermal well-being of the colony. During the “thermotherapy”, both systems work together. The heat is absorbed by the wax, reserves and the brood. The heat is accumulated and retained for a period of time, enough to kill the Varroa mites. The Varroa mites are exterminated directly in the capped brood.
Elimination of Varroa Destructor
A parasitic mite called Varroa Destructor is the main source of bee coloniy mortality in the world. It has been known for decades that the only weakness of the Varroa mite is its considerable sensitivity to increased temperature. If we expose the mite to temperatures of 40°C (104°F) to 47°C (116.6°F) for around 150 minutes, the mite is killed. This works at all the development stages of the Varroa destructor mite.
The Thermosolar Hive™ uses the sunshine to heat the bee colony and honeycombs slowly. The heat does not harm the bees nor the honeycombs. Yet it kills all the Varroa mites inside the cells within the distance of 40 cm (15.8 In) from the heat source, which is a special hive ceiling. By a single heat treatment at least 80% of the mites are killed (usually between 90 and 95%). It is enough to repeat the treatment 7-14 days later, killing all the mites completely.
Nature is in crisis, threatened by Shrinking biodiversity and habitat loss, global heating and toxic pollution. Failure to act is failing humanity. Addressing the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and protecting ourselves against future global threats requires sound management of hazardous medical and chemical waste; strong and global stewardship of nature and biodiversity; and a clear commitment to “building back better”, creating green jobs and facilitating the transition to carbon neutral economies. Humanity depends on action now for a resilient and sustainable future.
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