Hi Beegether Members! I've recently visited a couple of bumble bee hives, and I was shocked about the differences between bumble bees and honeybees. We tend to group them all together into one and I think I should talk a bit about them, don't you think? Bees make honey but not all bees make enough delicious golden liquid to share. Let's show you a couple of bees that are great pollinators but not making extra honey for you and I: You're probably very surprised, not all bees look the same, just like humans. Buff tailed bumble bees and bumble bees in general make honey but only enough for themselves. The small amount of honey left in the hive is not in the best quality therefore beekeepers don't harvest it. Honeybees are the best honey producers, thus their name, honeybees. Bumble bees are not as aggressive as honeybees and they are really great pollinators as I learned at Biobee today. Biobee is a company which uses bees as natural pollinator as well as other insects for pest control. You can see me below holding a hive. Bumble bee hives are much smaller, with a queen numbering only a hundred to two hundred bees, while honey bee hives are much bigger, numbering in the thousands. Usually the honeybee hives you see look like big boxes, while this beehive is only a cardboard box with plastic encasement. I was really surprised at that, as I have only seen honeybee hives in person till today, usually a large rectangular box propped up on stilts. Some bees I saw at Biobee are below, the big one on top is the queen. Now for your action! How many of you like crafts? DIYs? Lucky for you, I have the perfect thing for you. I know all of you like a sip of lemonade after a hot day, and so do bees, but with water. You will need: A shallow bowl or fountain in use Marbles or pebbles Water We will be making a bee refreshment station which will enable them to have a cool drink at the end of the day. It's beautiful to see how bees drink water. You'll also help bees to boot. Step one: Add pebbles/marbles to the bowl or fountain. Step two: Add water. Make sure that the water is a bit lower than the pebbles/marbles as to create an island for the bee to sit. Step three: Watch the bees flourish! Announcements: Check out my new survey on the blog here: Beegether.weebly.com/blog Check out the Twitter version here: twitter.com/Beegether Stay tuned for the Yes and Yes interview. (Postponed) How many of you like photography? Social media? Bees? How about all of that into one? Introducing Bees Around the World, sharing your bee experiences with Beegether. Find it and share your story at Beegether under Bees Around The World. Lastly, now is your chance to donate to Beegether. Beegether is going to become a nonprofit, and with your help, we'll raise the funds to do so. (If it's a not-for-profit, they expect you to find funds for your nonprofit, before you get money...weird.) Thank you to all of you who have already donated, and let's have a wonderful start to 2017 and save the bees! Donate here: Click here to support Help Start Non-Profit to Save Bees! by Natasha T
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Meet the Blogger!Hi there! I'm Natasha. I blog on bees, gardening, making a change, and blogging. I hope you are inspired to make a difference!
Archives
April 2017
|