Dear Friends of the Earth,

 

Our planet is in danger of dying, with deforestation carbon dioxide level is rising, and thousands of species are becoming extinct.

We need to stop it.

We live together in a social environment, and we all depend on the natural environment, in which bees play an essential role as pollinators. Without bees, we wouldn’t have most of the food we eat…! Bees are the key for the whole ecosystem and food chain.

By their pollination, seeds are produced in most plants, and the majority of them cannot breed without seeds.

No bees lead to no birds because they eat seeds and fruits…

In the last few years, there has been a lot of talk about bees dying on a massive scale, and it tends to happen, especially in western countries with industrial-scale agriculture. Scientists and beekeepers give three reasons for bees dying: 

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1. Shrinking of the natural resources of food.

2. Pesticides and chemical pollution of the natural environment.

3. Bee diseases are escalating because of the two above factors.

 

The reason for death not only of bees but many other pollinating insects (solitary bees, bumblebees, butterflies, beetles, etc.) is, first of all, shrinking of their natural habitats and lack of food for them. Hungry bees that are being treated with pesticides and other chemicals they can’t defend themselves against are vulnerable… Even in the countryside, where there used to be lots of natural forests and meadows, there is more and more monocultural agriculture instead

(big areas of just one kind of plant species, poor in bee nutrition, and what’s more, that one kind of the plant is usually contaminated with pesticides, fungicides and herbicides).

Bees and us, later on, ingest these chemicals…

 

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Ironically urban areas have become a shelter for insects with their gardens and public green spaces because of their diversity of many different plants.

However, in response to the pressure of civilization, those green areas are shrinking too, being changed by us to bricks, concrete, and tarmac; front gardens becoming driveways, back gardens changing to house extensions, and new houses. These green areas which are luckily still there are very often being cut down; the grass is mown, hedges or trees are trimmed or felled, even if there are still lots of flowers on them.

The reduction of flowers leaves bees hungry. Hungry and poisoned by chemicals, bees get weak, and because of that, they are becoming an easy target for bee diseases; they get ill and die.

 

There are four simple ways of making a change and helping the bees:

 

1. Planting and keeping bee-friendly shrubs and trees.
    

2. Mowing lawns after the flowers have blossomed (first cut after blossoming of dandelions in June and second cut after blossoming of clover in August).
    

3. Trimming hedges and trees after their flowers have blossomed. Protect the ivy, which provides bees with crucial last food of the season to survive the winter.
    

4. Avoiding chemicals: pesticides, fungicides, and even herbicides, which are going to the soil, contaminate roots and seeds of the plants, poison the bees, and at the same time, the food that we eat.

 

Those four things can help to save our planets’ ecosystem.

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We protect honeybees by removing wild bee colonies and collecting bee swarms, and in this way, we support our breeding programme of genetically strong honeybees.

 

You can promote our vision and support our beekeeping operation by donating: 

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• £5 will support cost of regular hive inspections.

 

• £10 will feed a colony of bees for a winter.

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• £20 will allow construction of a nucleus box to develop a healthy young colony.

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• £50 will allow construction of a simple British Standard Hive.

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• £100 will allow construction and establishment of a healthy bee colony in an ideal environment.

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