For people in the USA, this is Thanksgiving weekend. It is a time when gratitude is the most wonderful attitude. Family and friends come together, and everyone counts their blessings.
This post is meant to encourage everyone to ponder the impact that bees have on our lives, and to be so very grateful for them. If you are like most people, you probably almost never think about bees. Sure, they are out there, and you may see a few buzzing around a flower patch once in a while. Maybe you hurry past and hope they don't sting you.
If so, it might be easy to imagine a world without bees if you hardly notice them. We rarely take note of bees or acknowledge them for all the amazing things they do for us. A world without bees would be a pretty grim place, and many things we take for granted wouldn't exist.
There are around 20,000 species of bees worldwide, and most of them are wild bees native to their location. Honeybees are mostly domesticated, and have a closer relationship to humanity.
At Bee Mission, we love bees, and dedicate ourselves to expanding human understanding of bees and the many plights people has caused for them, and natural disasters they face.
In this 4:17-minute video, HISTORY takes a brief look at how a world without bees would look:
Why are bees so very special?
They pollinate anywhere from 1,500 to 5,000 flowers daily, depending on the proximity of flowers to their hives.
Bee pollination is responsible for one-third of all natural foods we eat. What would we do without all that fresh, healthy nutrient-dense food that is packed with vitamins, minerals, and other goodies?
Bees create beautiful flowers in all possible colors that are pleasant to our eyes and soothing for our spirits.
Back at the hive, honeybees make honey, which is a food that humans enjoy eating. Honey never expires. In some countries, honey is considered a health food, and is even used in New Zealand to restore the skin of burn victims.
One hard-working precious worker bee makes only one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her entire lifetime.
To make one pound of honey, an entire hive of honeybees must fly over 55,000 miles and visit 2 million flowers. If that doesn't make honey as precious as diamonds, what would it take?
Bees produce royal jelly, which humans use for beauty and longevity. It is said to enhance collagen production and has a positive effect on asthma, insomnia, hay fever, and a variety of other conditions.
Humans use beeswax to make candles, as a waterproofing agent, in wood and leather polish, and for other purposes.
Bees collect pollen from various flowers they visit, and humans consume the pollen to help regulate seasonal allergies.
Bee propolis, which they use as a sealant of cracks in the hive, is used as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent by humans, and can be applied to skin wounds.
Bee venom is a powerful substance used in pain management for illnesses like rheumatoid arthritis, MS, and nerve pain.
There are stingless bee species, but even bees that sting do not want to sting you unless they feel their hive is threatened, because usually after a bee stings, she dies, and she knows this.
Bees can’t see the color red, but they do see the blue, green, and ultra-violet spectrum very well. So, if you’d like lots of bees in your garden, plant purple, blue and violet flowers like lavender, honeysuckle, and snowdrops. To see how bees see a flower compared to how you see it, click here and scroll down.
Bees are great role models for humanity, providing a fine example of what a harmonious collaborative effort looks like, where they all work for the greater good of the hive and the next generation of bees.
Bees recognize the faces of ‘their’ humans and are tolerant and generous, as they share their greatest treasures with us. They play an important role in stabilizing the environment and balancing our ecology.
We do so many things that are harmful to their well-being and ours, but they continue to cooperate with us despite toxic manmade pesticides, foraging habitats mowed down, monocultures overtaking wildflowers, and so much more.
Bees embody selfless unconditional love. Let’s give some love back to them, and do more for all bees.
To all winged queen bees, their worker-daughters and drone-sons, Happy Thanksgiving!