World Bee Day
From the perspective of Gut Aiderbichl
(written by Gisela Pschenitschnig)
The bee asks: "I'm dying, don't you care?"…
On the 20th of May was proclaimed World Bee Day in 2018. The reason is that the founder of the first beekeeping school, Anton Janscha, the court beekeeper of Empress Maria Theresia, was born on May 20, 1734. Janscha wrote many books about the life and work of the industrious bees.
Bees provide our food and health...
Here are a few figures: 270 million years ago, the first hymenoptera emerged, which also includes bees, wasps and ants. The bumblebee came into being 25 million years ago. The Egyptians started keeping bees 9,000 years ago. Hippocrates researched and developed honey ointments against fever 2,400 years ago. In the modern age, machines spread asphalt and concrete, slowing down bees in their life-sustaining work.
The humming geniuses of nature
Bees pollinate around 80% of all wild and cultivated plants. Without pollination, there would be no fruit, no seeds, no food, no life. The job of bees, whether wild bees or honey bees, is pollination. There would be no biological diversity without the industrious bees, which fly from one flower to the next and thus distribute the various flower particles in nature with their fine body hairs. This is how the bee provides us with food.
The bee is a jack of all trades
Few people know what the bee achieves. It flies up to 10km a day and pollinates tirelessly. - No coffee beans without pollination, no cocoa beans, no cotton, etc. All the people who work on the plantations and earn their money with it would not have a job without bees.
The construction of a honeycomb is a miracle of nature. Precisely thought out and built by the industrious bees, they copy medical technicians and aircraft engineers.
The bee is in danger and dying out
Whether honey bees in hives or solitary wild bees, climate change does not stop at bees. Flowers don't grow on asphalt, monocultures reduce their food, pesticides not only act against pests, but weaken the bees' immune system to the point of death.
"Once the bee disappears from the earth, man has only four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more humans". (Albert Einstein)
People should leave natural gardens and do not put artificial greenery in the garden. This could create many 5-star hotels for bees. We should turn lawns into species-rich wildflower meadows, plant balconies with herbs, grow fruit, vegetables and herbs organically and do it without any pesticides.
In this sense: Let's go to the bee and learn from it.
Sincerely, your Gisela
