The Importance of Bees

By Alyvia Eason, 7

If we don’t start helping the planet, bees may go extinct! Scientists say that in the next four years we may not have bees because of environmental factors. Bees are part of biodiversity which we depend on for our survival. Bees make some of our supplies, like medicine, beeswax, chapstick, and other things. Some bees provide high quality food for the humans in the world by pollinating crops which feed us. Additionally, they pollinate our beautiful flowers and trees which contribute to the oxygen of our atmosphere and our lives.

On average, each bee will live for about 60 days – but if they sting something before that, they will die. The bee that lives the longest in the hive are the queen bees. Queen bees live anywhere from one to four years. Early Bumblebees live for about 28 days, which are most of the bumblebees you see around Missouri.

Surviving for bees isn’t easy. Bees lose a lot of life because of rough weather, through learning the ability to forage, through human interactions, and because of diseases and parasites. The lifespan of bees can vary based on which factors they get caught in during life. Autumn bees survive longer because they have evolved to survive more harsh conditions.

There are a lot of different jobs in the house of the bees.

Usually workers make up about about 50,000-60,000 of the population. Every day the workers are assigned to go get pollen from flowers. Bees are crop pollinators – that means they collect pollen from things like berries, flowers, and sap from pine trees. Workers are busy for the longest time collecting nectar and honey. They have to huddle up in the winter because its cold so they do that and they are ready to forage for they next spring and summer.

Drone bees fly around searching for things to put in their hive for hibernating. Bees work through summer and spring.

The Queen Bee’s job is to reproduce more workers and drones for the hive.

One of the most popular thing bees are known for is their honey! Honey is good for you! Honey has multiple vitamins, sugars, and some research even shows that it can help with allergies.. People use honey when they are sick for their coughs and headaches. Honey is used in multiple foods and drinks, like tea, bread, cheese, crackers, and peanut butter. Honey is also a great sweetener for diabetics to use. Additionally, researchers are looking into whether honey can help cancer patients feel better.

If we don’t help our environment now the bees will go extinct! We need to help our bees. They are a big part of our Earth. The bees are a lot of help in the world and we need them. There are lots of things you can do now to help the bees. For instance, instead of raking up your leaves, you can leave this winter. Lots of pollinators are hibernating in those leaves waiting for springs so they can wake up to make our world beautiful all over again.

While you wait for the sun to come out, you can plan your garden for next year. Plan on planting native flowering plants that provide long lasting blooms, make sure you have lots of flowers in the sunlight, plant in groups, and avoid insecticides. All of this will help our local bees thrive and you’ll be doing your part to keep bees healthy!