Busy being bee’s

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Jesse Schuerer, Reporter

The importance of bees isn’t news to anyone. They pollinate 80 percent of the world’s plants and they produce delicious honey. But over the past several years, the bee population has begun to decline. 

According to Yale University, over the past several years beekeepers in both the U.S and Europe have reported annual declines of hive populations of 30 % or higher, considerably more then what’s considered normal; however, in the winter of 2012, keepers reported losses of 40 to 50 %. This is alarming because bee’s are incredibly important to the planet. If bees disappeared we’d lose so many foods; most of which being fruits and vegetables. 

Bees dying off like this is referred to by scientists and experts as “Colony Collapse Disorder” or CDC.  CDCis an abnormal phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a honey bee colony disappear, leaving behind a queen, plenty of food, and few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees. 

There are several theories on what causes CDC. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has attributed several theories as likely causes, including mite invitations, migrating diseases, pesticides, and poor nutrition. But don’t give up yet! There are a variety of ways you can help the bees listed on TheBeeConservatory.Org.

For instance, one of the largest threats to bees is a lack of safe habitat where they can build homes and find a variety of nutritious food sources. So you could plant a bee garden, You don’t need a ton of space to grow bee-friendly plants. Gardens can be in yards and in window boxes, flower pots, and planters, so you could even have one if you lived in an apartment building!

Create a bee bath; bees need a drink of water too. According to The Bee Conservatory, to make a bee bath “fill a shallow bird bath or bowl with clean water, and arrange pebbles and stones inside so that they break the water’s surface. Bees will land on the stones and pebbles to take a long, refreshing drink.”

The bees are so important to the way the world eats. Without them, we’d lose so much, but with a little community effort we just might be able to save them.