World Bee Day is celebrated on May 20th each year. It is all about raising awareness of the absolute importance of bees and other pollinators for our ecosystem and our food supplies. This special day highlights the critical role pollinators play in not just essential agriculture but also for biodiversity. It’s about looking after bees, their fellow creatures and all their different habitats. It’s about the urgent need to take action to protect pollinators from multiple threats such as habitat loss, pesticides, and climate change.
World Bee Day encourages individuals, communities, and governments to take steps to support bee populations and ensure their survival for the benefit of our planet and future generations.
How do we participate and help all pollinators?
~ Plant bee-friendly gardens, window boxes, patio pots, back yards, verges, waste ground. Grow a variety of native and wild flowers and plants that attract bees. Plant to flower at different times of the year to provide continuous food sources for bees. Create bee habitats and bee hotels or nesting sites to provide shelter for solitary bees.
~ Definitely avoid using pesticides and herbicides especially during flowering periods when pollinators are most active. Either leave well alone or opt for natural pest control methods instead.
~ Provide water in shallow dishes with rocks or pebbles for bees to drink from. Bees need to stay hydrated, especially during hot weather.
~ Support your local beekeepers and buy local honey especially from beekeepers who practice sustainable beekeeping methods.
~ Learn more. Educate yourself about bees and their importance in our ecosystem. The more you know, the better equipped you’ll be to help protect them. Educate and encourage others to take action too by spreading awareness among friends, family, and community members of their importance. Even wasps are important pollinators so leave them be to go about their business.
~ Conserve natural habitats by supporting initiatives that protect and conserve natural habitats such as meadows, woodlands, and wildflower areas where bees thrive. Support policies that promote bee-friendly practices, such as banning harmful pesticides, or help create more green spaces in urban areas.
~ Consider becoming a beekeeper and maintain your own beehives – if this is feasible and allowed in your area.
As individuals we can contribute to bee conservation and have a positive impact to help ensure the health and well-being of bee populations worldwide. Every effort, no matter how small, can support pollinators continue with their crucial role in our environment.
Love bees?
This ‘Bee’ pin is specially created and made in support of our bees. You can purchase one of a limited edition here. I designed it to be 3D printed in multicolour polymer. It has a clutch fastening on the pin for a secure fixing. A donation of £5 from each sale – half from you, half from Ann Marie Shillito – goes to The Soil Association for their work helping bees to flourish.
Ann Marie says ‘I so enjoyed designing and modelling the bee on this brooch. The idea came initially from being commissioned to design and make a brooch for a bee keeper’s 70th birthday. Her brooch has six bees on it. It inspired me to make this smaller pin using the digital model of one of her brooch bees – about which she was happy to agree.
I am very grounded and happy in my small garden in which I mainly grow soft fruits, vegetables, herbs and wild flowers. I love all the pollinators (including wasps!) and so pleased to see them in Spring and their first appearance on early flowering dandelions. I let some of my leeks flower as pollinators swarm all over them, fertilizing them to go to seed which I harvest to use for the following sowing.
Donating to the Soil Association
The Soil Association might not be the first UK charity that springs to mind when you think of bee. They are an organic farming charity, quite literally rooted in sustainable food production, working to help save all pollinators from the ground up. They help and encourage farmers to grow their crops without the pesticides that have been killing bees in huge swathes. Also they have the data from their vital work to pressurise Government to stop bee-harming chemicals being used.
Enjoy World Bee Day, have a lovely summer and enjoy nature as much as you can. Remember that wasps are also pollinators and they are just going about their business too.
