decline of practices based on indigenous and local knowledge. These practices include traditional farming systems.
The risk is big: close to 35 percent of invertebrate pollinators, particularly bees and butterflies, and about 17 percent of vertebrate pollinators, such as bats, face extinction globally.
The ‘B’ Day
In a symbolic recognition of their indispensable role as life transmission chain, specialised organisations commemorate on 20 May each year the World Bee Day.
As a way to get you a bit more familiarised with these wonderful creatures, here there are some key facts and figures about bees:
- 20,000 – Number of species of wild bees, only 7 of them are honeybees. There are also some species of butterflies, moths, wasps, beetles, birds, bats and other vertebrates that contribute to pollination.
- 75% – Percentage of the world's food crops that depend at least in part on pollination.
- 235 billion dollars–577 billion dollars – Annual value of global crops directly affected by pollinators.
- 300% -- Increase in volume of agricultural production dependent on animal pollination in the past 50 years.
- Almost 90% -- Percentage of wild flowering plants that depend to some extent on animal pollination.
- 1.6 million tons – Annual honey production from the western honeybee.
- 16.5% -- Percentage of vertebrate pollinators threatened with extinction globally.
- +40% – Percentage of invertebrate pollinator species –particularly bees and butterflies– facing extinction.
- In addition to food crops, pollinators contribute to crops that provide bio-fuels (e.g. canola and palm oils), fibers (e.g cotton), medicines, forage for livestock, and construction materials. Some species also provide materials such as beeswax for candles and musical instruments, and arts and crafts.
- Every third bite of food you eat depends on pollinators.
A wonderful social community!
The related article: To Bee or Not to Bee... Again!, compiles 13 big amazing facts the United Nations provides about how perfectly organised our bees are. Here is a short reminder.
Honeybees are social insects that live in colonies, each consisting of:
- The queen, whose main activity is egg-laying, up to 2,000/day,
- 20,000–80,000 workers, all of which are females and
- 300–1,000 males (drones), whose sole responsibility is fertilisation.
- The queen will normally live for between 1 and 4 years, while a worker bee will live for 6–8 weeks in the summer and 4–6 months in the winter.
- Without a queen, the colony will eventually die.
- The workers perform a multitude of tasks, including tending to the queen, feeding larvae, feeding drones, nectar ripening, producing heat, collecting water, beehive-cleaning, guard duty, and field collection of pollen and nectar. A single honeybee may collect 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
- The “drones” would die of starvation if the workers stopped feeding them.
- Bees have personalities! Despite the phrase “busy as a bee”, even within a colony there will be workers and shirkers!
- Honeybees’ wings beat 11,400 times per minute, this making their distinctive buzz.
- Bees can recognise human faces.
- Bees are nature’s most economical builders – honeycombs are among the most efficient structures in nature; their walls meet at a precise 120-degree angle, making a perfect hexagon.
- Bees fly outside the hive normally when temperatures rise above 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius).
- Honeybees do not hibernate, but cluster for warmth. They remain active all winter. #### Be grateful!
Now that you know them a bit better, please take due note of the fact you can do something to protect the bees and, by the way, a key ring in the life transmission chain.
There would be many ways how to show gratitude to bees. Why not just click here and take a quick look at the six big ways how to do so that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization provides.
Please love bees, don’t panic if they fly close to you, they would not harm you unless you attack them.
And always remember that they are working to ensure your food, your health and, by the way,