The tiny bee has a big job. That job is an elemental one for life on earth. Bees produce honey; that is something most individuals know. But that’s not what they’re really doing. Their real work is pollination. That’s why they matter so much. The world would change in horrible ways if bees went extinct. This is not a small problem. This is a problem of people as well as animals.
What Bees Do Every Day
A bee leaves its hive. It goes to a flower. It needs nectar and pollen to eat. The nectar is for energy. The pollen is for protein that you will use to feed baby bees. The bee burrows into the flower. Pollen from the stamen of the flower then adheres to the bee’s hairy body. Now the bee flies to a new flower. The female part of the new flower brushes some pollen from the first flower. This is pollination.
This is what allows the flower to go to seed. Seeds grow into new plants. Many plants can’t even produce seeds without this assistance. And bees are the ideal workers for this. They are built for it. They are furry so the pollen clings to them. They stop at many flowers of the same name on one flying tour. This is good for the plants. Bees do this for free. They have no idea they are doing it. They’re just trying to find food.” But it’s this search that feeds the world.
Bees Feed The World
Bees bring one out of every three bites of food we eat. Think about your breakfast. The blueberries in your muffin. The almonds on your cereal. The apple juice you drink. All of these need bees. Bees pollinate a lot of our favorite foods.
Here’s a rundown of what does and does not need bees: WHAT NEEDS BEES (and why)\[Asset Included(Id:1194209791136;Type:asset)\] * APPLES Bees pollinate the trees.
Apples
Almonds
Berries
Cherries
Cucumbers
Pumpkins
Watermelons
Broccoli
Onions
Coffee beans
Cocoa for chocolate
Without bees almost no fruit would be produced by these plants. Some would make none at all. Our diets would have been rather boring. We would mainly have grain,
like wheat and rice. These are wind pollinated. We would have corn and oats. But we would sacrifice the vast majority of fruits and many vegetables. Food would get dull and unhealthy.
Bees Help Animals And Nature
Bees aren’t just great for our food. They help all of nature. Wild plants need pollination too. Trees in the forest need it. The flowers in the field want it. These plants are food and they provide homes for birds and squirrels and insects and bears.
A deer eats the taken care of) berry. A bird eats seeds from a pollinated flower. A bear gorges upon the nuts in a pollinated tree. The bees are at the heart of the entire web from which life emanates!
If the bees were gone a lot of wild plants would be gone. That’s a disaster waiting to happen in the form of an endless series of disasters. Animals that munch on those plants would starve. Animals that eat those animals that eat plants would go hungry as well.
Whole ecosystems could collapse. Forests and fields would grow quieter and emptier. There would be far less color and life in the world.
Bees Make More Than Honey
Facts About Honey Honey has the gift of bees. But beeswax is also important. Beekeepers put beeswax in lots of things. Candles lip balm skin creams and furniture polish.
Many products use beeswax. But even if we didn’t have those things we could survive. The real crisis is the loss of pollination. Honey is a sweet bonus. Pollination is a necessity.
Why Bees Are In Trouble
Bees are dying in droves. This is called colony collapse. Whole hives die or disappear. Scientists study why. They conclude there are a lot of good reasons.
Pesticides are a big problem. These are chemicals that farmers apply to kill bugs that eat crops. But these chemicals can harm bees as well. It can confuse bees and cause them to become lost. They can also compromise a bee’s immune system. A weak bee will fall to sickness/swarming/etc much easier.
Losing homes is another issue. Wild places are transformed into farms and cities. Flowers disappear. A bee requires many flowers to feed upon. A lawn of nothing but simple grass is a very bee’s desert. It has no food.
Parasites and sickness spread easily. A small mite known as the varroa mite feeds on a bee’s blood. It weakens the bee and spreads viruses.
Climate change throws every thing out of whack, timingwise. Flowers may be early or late, on time or delayed. Bees could wake up from hibernation at the wrong time. the bee the flower misss each other. The bee finds no food. The flower gets no pollination.
All these stresses add up. The bee population decreases every year.
What If Bees Went Extinct
Imagine a world without bees. The change wouldn’t occur all at once. It would be a creeping silence.
First off, the flowers would produce fewer fruit (pun intended). Your tomato plant may only produce two tomatoes. The apple tree could bear three small apples. Farmers’ crops would fail. Almonds and berries and melons would be very high priced. They were only available to rich people. And other such foods would vanish from stores altogether.
The world will turn to wind pollinated foods. We would be consuming a bunch more bread and rice and pasta. Fruits and vegetables would fail to provide our vitamins. Human health would get worse. We would be ill more frequently due to bad nutrition.
Fields and forests would change. Without producing seeds many colorful wildflowers would go extinct. What was left would be grasses and trees like pine that disseminate seeds in the wind. Meadows would be green and brown with no colorful flowers. Some animals, such as those that subsist on fruits and nuts, would starve. Birds and mammals would disappear. The country would be less energetic.
It would shatter the economy in multiple locations. Beekeepers would lose their jobs. Farmers who plant pollinated crops would be bankrupted. Everybody who works to transport
and sell and cook these foods would also lose work. Supermarket shelves would be missing large sections. The food world would be a different place.
Our world would be a deprived one. Not just poorer in money. Poorer in beauty, poorer in flavor, poorer in diversity, and poorer in life. That would be a relic as well, the hum of a bee. A sound our children may never hear.
What We Can Do To Help
It doesn’t have to end this way! We can help bees. Everyone can do something.
Plant flowers bees love. Even a pot on the balcony can help a little. Nice flowers are Lavender sunflowers rosemary and thyme. Select flowers that mature at different times. This provides bees with food throughout the season.
2Don’t use pesticides in your yard. If you have to rely on something, go natural. Chemicals that snuff bad bugs also exterminate good ones.
Leave a little wild space. Let a little clover grow in your lawn. Allow a corner of your yard to go wild with weeds that bloom. Bees need messy places.
Support local beekeepers. Buy local honey and beeswax. This is crucial for helping beekeepers maintain hives that are healthy.
Teach others about bees. When people know about it they will care. When they care they will act.
A World With Bees
Where there are bees, there is potential. It is a world of plenty and color. With each blooming flower and growing fruit it is a little miracle, assisted by a bee. The bee works without pause. All it wants is a sip of nectar. It returns everything to us.
Do not swat the next bee you see. Watch it. Watch as it hops from one flower to another. See how focused it is. That little bee is carrying a big piece of our future.
We need to do everything we can to save it. The bee’s story is our own. If the bee thrives we thrive. If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. The choice is ours. Plant a flower. Save a bee. Protect our world.