Help Save The Bee Population: Intro
Over the coming weeks we look forward to sharing helpful information on ways you can help save the bee population. Members of our family, including myself, recently joined the local Beekeepers association. We will be attending “Bee School” with hopes of starting our own hives/colonies.
As a rare breeds farm, we are all too familiar with the concept of endangered animals. That being said, our environment can technically afford to lose certain bloodlines over others. This is not the case for bees, however. The steady decline in our bee population is cause for severe concern. If we loose too many more, it could cost every one of us our lives as we know them if we don’t act fast.
What has caused the decline in bee population?
Insecticides are arguably the biggest global killer of bees out there, alongside big agriculture and global warming. The health of honey bees and wild pollinators are especially affected by destruction of habitat, and lack of forage due to toxic pesticides. Big agriculture and the effects of their irresponsible chemical spraying has resulted in a clear, direct negative impact on both the individual bee as well as their entire colony world-wide.
The effects of global warming are also taking out huge numbers of bees. Freezing cold winters that last into spring have decimated colonies up to 70%, like in 2014 in Iowa for example. In the last 5 years 30% of our nations bee population disappeared. In the same about of time, nearly a third of the colonies have died. We are facing a serious crisis that cannot be ignored for another minute.
Beekeepers have noted this steady decline since 2006. Without insect pollination, 1/3 of the crops we eat would be affected. We would be forced to figure out a different way to pollinate them. Apples, strawberries, almonds and and tomatoes in particular would be most greatly affected. An article in the September 2016 edition of Newsweek reported that bees pollinated somewhere around $40 billion worth of our nations agricultural produce each year.
There’s a lot to talk about
We are only tapping the surface of this extremely disturbing situation and will be bringing much more information to you each week. There are so many ways you can help save the bee population that we will go over in heavy detail. In the meantime, do your best to shop locally grown produce, don’t use pesticides in your yard, and consider bee-friendly plants in your gardens this coming spring.
Can’t wait for more updates? Read this detailed description of the declining bee population.
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