Participate in World Bee Day!

The domestic bee is recognizable by its brown color and yellow/brown stripes. It is hairy: its hairs allow it, among other things, to collect pollen. It is not very large: 1.5 cm maximum (whereas a wasp is more like 2.5 cm and has mandibles because it eats meat!).

If a World Bee Day had to be established, it's because this species is threatened. Yet bees are at the heart of biodiversity because they are pollinating insects!

May 20th is World Bee Day... and it's easy to contribute to their preservation thanks to 1001bees.com

Pollinator, but what else?

The bee is a hymenopteran insect of the Apoidea family. Long called a “honey fly,” it is an invertebrate with at least 20,000 different species on the planet. In Europe, 2,000 are listed, in France about 1,000, the best-known species being Apis mellifera which, like most honey bees, belongs to the genus Apis.

Bees form colonies, in domestic hives, built by humans, or in natural hives (tree trunks, for example) and are composed of three types of individuals: queens, workers, and drones.

Workers are exclusively females! They are the most numerous, they work 24/7 and change roles several times during their existence: nurse, forager, builder, storekeeper. It is the workers who produce royal jelly, build the cells, and collect the honey – in short, they do all the work.

Drones, the males, are haploid and slightly larger in size. Only a few hundred are found per hive, and they don't sting! But their only role is to fertilize and they are generally quite badly treated by the females.

The queen: she is the one who gives birth to all bees! She mates in flight with about ten males, stores the sperm in a reserve, then spends her time laying eggs. If she fertilizes the egg with a sperm, she will give birth to a female, otherwise, to a male.

What is the role of the bee in the ecosystem?

Of course, bees sting and their sting can cause allergic reactions. But they only sting when they feel threatened; they are not aggressive insects.

And above all, it's important to know that 90% of wild flowering plants and more than a third of the fruits, nuts, and seeds that humanity feeds on exist thanks to pollination carried out by bees!

Bees and the environment

Bees collect nectar to make honey, but in doing so, they also transport pollen from plant to plant, thereby ensuring plant fertilization - and thus the possibility of fruits.

For plants to reproduce, male pollen must come into contact with the stigma of a female plant. Even with very little distance between them, flowers cannot do without pollinating insects for their survival.

Bees and humans

As the only insects whose production humans consume, bees produce incredible wealth for the human body:

- honey, whose therapeutic virtues are proven: a gourmet food, honey is antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiseptic.

- wax, also anti-inflammatory and rich in vitamin A, is an ideal ointment for skin and hair. It can be used to treat scars.

- propolis and royal jelly strengthen the immune system, act as antivirals, and are incredible allies in cases of fatigue or depression.

Why a World Bee Day?

As we repeat, bees play a crucial role in plant fertilization: they are the agents responsible for the reproduction of flowers and thus fruits! By foraging, a bee can visit up to 700 flowers in a single day.

90% of wild vegetation, 75% of food crops, and 35% of agricultural land worldwide depend on this reproductive process. Hence the need to preserve these species on which the planet's food survival depends.

The threats to bees are alarming. Their existence is endangered by human activity: habitat fragmentation, the development of intensive monoculture agriculture, the decrease in bee resistance to parasites, and the increasing use of pesticides.

These are the same causes that favor the emergence of zoonoses like COVID-19. Colony Collapse Disorder is multifactorial but is primarily explained by the industrial rationalization of crops: the use of pesticides that either directly kill bees or affect their cognitive abilities, and the systematic elimination of wildflowers, which causes food deficiencies.

The disappearance of hedges and meadows simply starves the bees!

To encourage consideration of this worrying cause, the United Nations decided on a global day of reflection: May 20th was thus designated as World Bee Day.

It is a lever to encourage strategic measures for the protection of pollinator species in general and bees in particular. In their cynicism, humans have valued the economic role of bees at 265 billion dollars!

How to preserve the species in a highly industrialized world?

As early as 1995 in France, beekeepers reported up to 90% colony losses, far from the 5 to 10% mortality generally observed in bee colonies. This extinction rate raises many questions and calls for extensive reflection to maintain the species. This is how the international initiative for the sustainable conservation of pollinators was established.

It consists of supporting global actions and providing technical assistance to countries to support beekeeping. By providing sustainable solutions, the initiative sets objectives based on stakeholder categories:

For individuals, it's about:

- Promoting flower cultivation in gardens

- Opting for raw honey sold by local beekeepers

- Favoring foods from sustainable agricultural production

- Banning the use of non-organic phytosanitary treatments in gardens

- Protecting swarms and nests

- Participating in reforestation

For beekeepers and farmers, it's about:

- Using ecological methods for agricultural practices such as crop rotation and intercropping

- Banning the use of chemical treatments for plants and toxic pesticides for harvesting bee products

- Reintroducing hedges of diversified crops

For governments and policymakers, it will be necessary to:

- Raise awareness among local communities about the importance of bees in preserving ecosystems and biodiversity

- Ensure compliance with decisions relating to agricultural practices by indigenous populations

- Implement strategic measures to encourage change at the local level

- Prohibit the use of certain products, as was the case in France in 2018 with neonicotinoids

- Strengthen collaboration between state structures and international organizations to regularly monitor global statistics

- Invest in research institutes to monitor local trends for better decision-making.