World Bee Day acknowledges pollinators who keep the world alive

Today is World Bee Day, a day to acknowledge the role that bees and other pollinators play in keeping the ecosystem humming and to focus on the importance of preserving honey bees and all other pollinators.

It was on May 20 that pioneering beekeeper Anton Janša was born in Slovenia in 1734. Beekeeping is taken so seriously in the tiny Balkan republic that the country’s unofficial motto is “Land of the Good Beekeepers”. Slovenia produces gourmet honey, offers beekeeping tourism, and likes to point out that its citizens—who constitute the wealthiest Slavic nation in the world—take their work ethic from the honey bee.

The month of May was chosen for World Bee Day because in the northern hemisphere the need for pollination is greatest during this period, while in the southern hemisphere it is a time for harvesting honey and bee products.

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The idea for a World Bee Day was conceived on September 15, 2014. Slovenian beekeeper Bostjan Noc was driving to work at The Slovenian Beekeepers Association, where he is president, listening to a radio programme about “world days” and their meanings, and wondered why bees didn’t have their own day. Considering that every third spoonful of the world’s food relies on bees and other pollinators, and that bees are increasingly endangered and almost no longer able to survive without human intervention and support, it seemed only right that the public should be made aware.

Facts about bees

• Honey bees are important pollinators for flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Bees transfer pollen between the male and female parts of flowers, allowing plants to grow seeds and fruit.
• Honey bees live in hives (or colonies). The members of the hive are of three types:

1. The queen runs the hive. Her job is to lay the eggs that will spawn the hive’s next generation of bees. She also produces chemicals that guide the behaviour of the other bees.
2. The workers, all female, forage for food (pollen and nectar from flowers), build and protect the hive, and clean and circulate air by beating their wings. Workers are the only bees most people ever see flying around outside the hive.
3. The drones are the third type. These are the male bees, whose sole purpose is to mate with the queen. Several hundred live in each hive during the spring and summer. But come winter, when the hive goes into survival mode, the drones are kicked out!

• The honey produced and stored by bees is meant to be the food store for the hive in winter. Luckily for us, these efficient little workers produce 2-3 times more honey than they need, and so humans get to enjoy the treat, too!
• If the queen bee dies, workers create a new queen by selecting a young larva and feeding it a special food called “royal jelly“. This enables the larva to develop into a fertile queen.
• Honey bees are great fliers. They can fly at a speed of around 25 kmph and beat their wings 200 times per second!