World Bee Day
Today is World Bee Day and building a better future for bees is the focus of this year’s awareness day.
Karin Kos is the Chief Executive of Apiculture New Zealand - she says not only do honey bees provide us with a great source of natural food, but they also play a critical role as a commercial pollinator in our agriculture and horticulture sectors.
“While New Zealand’s honey bees have not suffered the colony losses of other countries, our bees still rely on human intervention to stay protected from threats such as the varroa mite, American Foul Brood (AFB) and wasp invasion.”
Image courtesy of Green and Blue, a company which sells Bee Bricks.
Apiculture New Zealand says Aotearoa has a flourishing population of honey bees cared for by 10,325 registered beekeepers with a total of 760,751 hives across the country. In the last financial year, they say, commercial beekeepers exported 20,500 tonnes of honey, worth $455.5 million.
For people wanting to support New Zealand’s bee populations, without becoming a beekeeper, Ms Kos says the best thing that people can do is grow bee-friendly plants.
Bee favourites include natives like harakeke, rātā and rewarewa, as well as popular garden plants such as lavender, rosemary, basil and citrus trees.
Also worth mentioning on World Bee Day are bee bricks which have become mandatory for new buildings in some parts of the United Kingdom.
Many bee species in Britain are solitary and the bee bricks encourage these insects to nest in them.
Green & Blue is an example of an eco-focused construction firm that currently offer bee bricks in the standard portfolio of building materials, as the differences in cost between normal bricks and bee/swift bricks are negligible.
The Brighton and Hove council has established mandates to use the bricks in the construction of new builds higher than five metres.
Bee bricks are actually normal building bricks created with small cavities into which bees can nest. The Brighton and Hove council is aiming to offer more room for the vital pollinators.
Not everyone is on board with the plan though. Some scientists argue the move will not make any real difference for biodiversity and could make things worse for bees if the holes aren’t cleaned properly, attracting mites or even disease.
Apiculture New Zealand says Aotearoa has 10,325 registered beekeepers caring for a total of 760,751 hives across the country.
Honey bee facts courtesy of Apiculture New Zealand;
Worker bees produce about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in their lifetime.
Bees have been producing honey for at least 150 million years.
On one flight from the hive to collect honey, a honey bee will visit between 50 and 100 flowers.
A bee must visit about 4 million flowers to produce 1kg of honey.
Bees use their antennae to smell. They can detect nectar 2 km away.
The honey bee is the only insect which produces food eaten by humans.
A honey bee flies at approximately 24 kph.
The honey bee beats its wings 11,400 times per minute, which is how they make their buzzing sound.