Survival Of The Bees

A Bee's Life

Bees live in hives with large populations. A hive has several different types of bee. A queen bee is a female bee who is the mother of all the bees in the hive. A drone bee is a male bee whose job is to mate with the queen. The worker bees collect food for the hive, build the nest and rear the young.

When bees are pollinating flowers, they are seeking two kinds of nutrients. They suck nectar from flowers through a proboscis for energy and collect pollen in pollen baskets on their back legs for nutrients. The nectar mixes with enzymes in the stomach, and is vomited up as honey.

From a human point of view, bees provide two fundamental roles. We can sustainably harvest their honey if we look after beehives with care. We also need them to pollinate flowers.

The Impact of Industrial Agricultural practices on the Bee

Industrial agriculture is killing bee populations at an alarming rate.

Farming acres and acres of a single crop is called monoculture farming or monocropping. On such land, there is only one species of flower for bees to pollinate. This deprives them of the balance of nutrients they would receive from pollinating a diversity of species of flowers.

In monoculture farmland, the soil also inevitably has fewer nutrients in it. To compensate for weak soils, farmers use chemical controls to assist plant growth. These chemical controls, such as neonicotinoids and glysophate, weaken and kill bees.

In some places, bees are trucked around to provide them with access to multiple flowers. This practice is extremely stressful for the bees.

In some places, bees are fed sugar as a substitute for natural nectar. This badly affects bees' health.

Colony collapse disorder

As a result, the phenomenon of colony collapse disorder has appeared. There are reports of farms pollinating flowers with paintbrushes because their bees have disappeared. Looking after our whenua and its karaehe (animals), as always, is tikanga.

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