This little bee is so important to our lives. Most do not even give it a thought as to where our food comes from. This bee is collecting pollen to take back to the hive. They pollinate fruit trees, flowers, vegetables and so much more. We seem to be losing more and more bees everyday. WOW! As nature lovers, we need to be more diligent in protecting our bees from local pesticides, farming pesticides and what they spray on our roadsides. Only we can change things and only if we apply ourselves. I hear many complain, but just a few respond to volunteer. My dad always voted and said, "If you don't vote, don't bitch about it." Crops pollinated by bees include almonds, apples, apricots, avocados, blueberries, cantaloupes, cashews, coffee, cranberries, cucumbers, eggplants, grapes, kiwis, mangoes, okra, peaches, pears, peppers, strawberries, tangerines, walnuts and watermelons. Bees are down to 60%. They are just gone. Due to the pesticides and fungicides, they are dying by the millions. Costing billions.
Eugene sprayed the linden trees in the city and killed so many bees. They were everywhere, dead bees, every where you looked. I cried. Why did that have to happen in the first place? Negligence. Not asking questions. This coming year, I am getting my own bee hives. I want to do my part, plus have the honey that bees produce. Honey is so much better for us than sugar. You can infuse honey with many different herbs, creating some wonderful honey.
President Obama has signed a memorandum establishing the first-ever federal pollinator strategy. The memo creates a new inter-agency task force charged with developing a federal strategy to protect pollinators, which aims to stave off the declines that pollinators such as honeybees, butterflies and bats have suffered in recent years. Obama instructed all federal agencies to use their powers "to broadly advance honey bee and other pollinator health and habitat," and the Agriculture Department announced $8 million in incentives to farmers and ranchers in five states who establish new habitats for honeybees. Glory Bee Foods in Eugene, Oregon have everything you need to have your own bees, honey jars/lids, hives and so much more. Boxes, clothing, hats, bees also if you order them. They also have ingredients and containers for making your own body products. If you live locally, it is easy to go to their storefront. If you don't live locally, you can order online.
As stewards of our lives, we need to be more diligent about this issue. Find out what you can do in your community to help save the bees. I have planted so many flowers, tons of bee balm, many patches of medicinal herbs that flower everywhere in the yard and my gardens. This past winter, 23.2 percent of America’s managed honeybee colonies were lost. The figures were worse during the year prior, but bees are still dying at a disturbing rate, and something needs to change. You can ask at the Extension Agency in Lane County. It deals with agriculture, food preservation and so much more. Plant seeds in gardens around your town. Here in Eugene we have several gardens that are for the Community to use for growing food. Plant some flowers anywhere you can. If we all do this, we could make the world beautiful and bring back the bees. #SavetheBees #AllLivesMatter
Find out what you can do to help the plight of the honeybees. We won't have the foods we need to survive if we don't do something drastic to help keep them alive. It is absolutely necessary to plant some flowers and flowering herbs so they have food to eat. Don't plant Monsanto corn or other polluted seeds that kill bees. These seeds have the chemicals bred right into the plant and that is why our bees are dying. Pollution with pesticides and fungicides.