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IT’S WORLD BEE Day today. That’s in the same week that keen gardeners will be glued to the Chelsea Flower Show, which is now underway in London.
The annual pilgrimage for the world’s leading gardeners certainly makes for soothing evening TV (Pimms on the lawn, anyone?) and no doubt, along the way, there will be talk of ‘oh, this plant is great for pollinators’ and ‘it’s important to encourage wildlife’ as the week goes on.
But the difficulty here is that while the world’s horticultural elite are busy building beautiful gardens and habitats for insects and bees to thrive, it is all happening while the actual habitats of these creatures are being systematically destroyed.
So, no amount of prize giving at garden shows or international bee or pollinator days will make up for the destruction of hedgerows, the intensive farming, the spraying of chemicals and the rampant industrialisation that is truly threatening the very existence of these beloved creatures.
But today, it is important that we celebrate the might and wonder of bees, the best pollinators in town.
Here’s the thing: World Bee Day was actually created for honey bees. It was named after Anton Janša, a beekeeper from Slovenia, who was a pioneer of modern apiculture. But honey bees, as cute and lovable as they are, aren’t in trouble. I’ve written extensively about this before. There are more of them on the planet right now than there probably ever have been.
The bees that are in trouble — the wild bees, the bumblebees, the solitary bees — don’t have a day named after them. They don’t have keepers. They don’t make honey for humans. And one species in 10 of them is heading for extinction. And that’s from a number that has doubled in the last 10 years.
I’m often told by my editors that my language is ‘too flowery’, and I need to be more hard-hitting when I present the case for bees. But I love flowers! However, today, on World Bee Day, I’m not going to use flowery language. No poetry. Because things are too serious.
So I’m just going to instead present 20 facts about bees that might change how you think about them — some bad, some good, but all facts.
The United Nations have designated 20 May each year since 2018 as World Bee Day.
This day was chosen as it is the birthday of Anton Janša, a beekeeper whose practices laid the foundations for modern beekeeping.
But there are an estimated 26,000 species of bees across the planet, and only eight of these species are honey bees.
The majority of bee species are solitary bees, and there are in and around 250 species of bumblebee worldwide.
There are more honey bees on the planet right now than there probably ever have been in the history of honeybees.
They are primarily a kept species from which humans extract labour and honey. Labour, as they are used en masse to pollinate crops. Honey needs no explanation. The point is they are not endangered.
It is estimated that 40% of bees (and other pollinators) are endangered worldwide. 25% of bee species are no longer showing up on recordings.
There has been a 76% decline, by mass, in flying insects over a 27-year period on nature reserves in Germany. On nature reserves. The safe places. Yes, the safe places.
I was told by a leading academic eight years ago that it is presumed that we are losing bees at a rate of 5% per annum. Hard-nosed enough for you?
A dramatic loss of, and degradation of, habitat. Pesticide use. Spread of disease. Pollution. And to top it all off, man-made climate breakdown.
In less than 100 years, we’ve messed it all up. It’s not a debate any more. Not an argument.
It’s a fact. The science is in. The proof’s in the silence. Unpalatable as it is to most, but glaringly obvious to those who work at the coal-face of nature advocacy, is the fact that what we choose to eat and how we choose to produce that food is the greatest driver of bee, insect and nature decline.
We’re eating the life support system we rely upon to exist. How ridiculously stupid.
I don’t think the above facts will shock anyone. We know. Deep down…we know. Yet nothing changes. It’s still getting worse year on year.
So maybe understanding what we are losing, knowing bees a bit better, learning a little about these wonderful, vital, gentle creatures and their characters, lives and ways will light a spark.
They are a plant-based evolution of wasps. If you didn’t already believe bees were magic, this should do it.
They foraged at the feet of dinosaurs. Think about that in the context of our consequence.
But they don’t. They could if they wanted to, but they’re smart, so they’d fly around rather than over the mountain.
Which they did – see next fact! The highest they have been observed flying in the wild is 16,000 ft above sea level.
They spread out from here, cross the planet (flying around, not over, Mount Everest on their way!), and even today, the location with the richest diversity of bumblebee species on the planet is the highest highland on earth, the Tibetan Plateau. Maybe this is why they are so docile and chill by nature – but I can’t fact that.
Male bees don’t sting. This isn’t a choice thing – they have no stinger.
All female bees (queens and workers) develop a stinger, but the equivalent part of the body in males develops into the genital capsule.
They last for the most part from early spring until late summer/early autumn when they come to a natural end.
The male bees, female workers and old queen die off, and the new queens disperse to hibernate.
During hibernation, bumblebee queens avoid freezing to death by producing glycerol, which acts like antifreeze, preventing water in their bodies from turning into ice.
Research to test if bees function at low atmospheric pressure shows honeybees can’t fly below 66.5kPa, yet down at 52kPa plants will grow and bumblebees will pollinate.
This is a sticky secretion, which they leave behind whenever they land on flowers and can distinguish between their own scent marks, those left by fellow nest-mates, and those left behind by bees from other colonies.
It’s hard to imagine the solitary bees, given we’re so primed to think of bees hanging about in their thousands in hives. But solitary bees don’t live in colonies.
Don’t have a queen. Don’t make honey or wax. They aren’t aggressive, don’t swarm and rarely sting. They vary in size but are generally smaller than bumblebees.
They groom themselves often and even manage to multitask by grooming whilst flying at the same time.
They groom pollen, which attaches to the hairs on their bodies, into the pollen baskets (corbiculae) on their hind legs. Grooming also helps to dislodge mites, other parasites, and dirt, maintaining bee health.
They use these along with their mouths to smell and taste. Having two antennae means they can detect the direction a smell is coming from. They also use their antennae to communicate with other bees in their colony: touching antennae to the antennae of another bee is a bee handshake!
The back-and-forth motion of bumblebee wings creates vortices in the air like tiny hurricanes, the eyes of which have lower pressure than the surrounding air, and keeping these eddies of air above the wings helps bumblebees stay aloft.
Most males never actually get to mate successfully (less than 10%), but if given the chance, will indeed mate with more than one queen. Yeah…I know, I know…
Initially, it may not go well for them, as they often crash onto flowers and land awkwardly. Researchers found that the foraging ‘rate of return’ for workers new to foraging was not maximised until at least 30 trips had been made from the nest.
Often, the energy spent foraging was greater than the energy returned in nectar. Like us, bees have to figure stuff out and improve with experience.
They have two large compound eyes, one on either side of the head, and they also have three small, simple single-lens eyes on the upper front of the head called ocelli.
These ocelli are very sensitive to UV light and seem to act as sensors for light levels, but are not capable of forming useful images.
Bees need flowers. Bees need flowers.
Bees and flowers have evolved together over millions of years.
Many, many flowers rely on bees (and other pollinators) for pollination, and in return, they provide food in the form of nectar and pollen.
Nectar = Carbs = Sugar = Energy
Pollen = Protein + Nutrients + Fats.
It’s a mutually beneficial relationship.
So there you go.
No flowery language.
No poetry.
Just 20 facts of hundreds I could provide to you about these wonderful but increasingly endangered creatures. Hopefully, they might inspire a curiosity and caring in those who know little about bees and provide a reminder of sorts to the experts and professional advocates that bees and saving bees is not about honey bees and not just about the economic value they provide to us and the economy.
Bees don’t belong on the balance sheet; they belong on your balcony. In your garden. In your park. In healthy, unruly hedgerows. In every field, by every stream and in every thriving native woodland and forest.
They have a right to just exist.
To be.
They have been doing it for millions and millions of years, way, way before us.
This was their planet before we happened.
We should know and respect that on this World Bee Day and all days…for if the bees are happy and healthy, we will be too.
Paul Handrick aka The Bee Guy, is the founder of the World Bee Sanctuary in Co. Wicklow, now open to visitors by appointment. You can get your daily bee fact by following him on social media channels. www.worldbeesanctuary.org
X – @the_beeguy Bluesky – @thebeeguy.bsky.social Mastodon – @thebeeguy@mastodon.ie Instagram – @world_bee_sanctuary
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