For World Bee Day on May 20, 2023
A great day for a small animal - the bee
From the perspective of Gut Aiderbichl
(written by Gisela Pschenitschnig)
The bee's role in the ecosystem is life-sustaining for all living things. As a pollinator, the bee is jointly responsible for biodiversity and food security to sustain all human and animal life.
Biological diversity or biodiversity generally refers to the variety of life. In particular, it is about the different plant and animal species, and their genetic diversity within a species. The chain closes with the biological diversity of habitats, which include forests, meadows and lakes. All together they make the ecosystem. First and foremost is the small, busy bee and its long flights over the meadows.
The challenges of sustaining the ecosystem affect the entire world. The current ecosystem requires the provision of sustainable and sufficient food production, adaptation to climate change, the problem of ever diminishing natural resources resources or even the ever increasing problems with water supply.
Climate change and the threat to bees
Now that climatic conditions are changing, as they probably are worldwide, the seasons are also changing. Thus, climate change is an undeniable threat to the ecosystem. More and more heat days, long rainy seasons, long dry periods, etc. are emerging, "confusing" the bees and insects. Both of these animal species are tremendously important in maintaining the ecosystem. In order to visit their natural food sources, the buzzing geniuses fly up to 10 km or more every day. Bees pollinate about 80% of wild and cultivated plants. Without pollination, there would be no fruit, no seeds - no food - no life. With their tiny body hairs, bees distribute pollen throughout nature.
Climate change means stress for the bees. The farmer is stressed because frequent rain postpones mowing, for example. The bee has to retrain, so to speak: it has to adapt its pollination system to the climatic conditions. But this is not easy, and certainly not possible from one day to the next.
"This year five beehives starved" - said a beekeeper. Why do bees starve? When it rains and is cold for too long, no grasses, no blossoms and flowers bloom - pollination does not take place. The bees' food fails. Feeding syrup can be used as emergency feeding. Feed syrup is made from fructose (fruit sugar), glucose (grape sugar) and sucrose (household, cane or beet sugar). Sugar water is provided to the bees over the winter months. Sounds relatively simple, but even feeding by means of sugar water is a science of its own and by no means the solution to sustaining life.
Let's preserve the garden for the bees and stay away from weed poisons
Policymakers have been thinking, and have come to the conclusion that in order to conserve Biodiversity, certain steps must be followed: Restoring nature, combating the decline of important pollinators, using urban green spaces, greening roofs, ensuring that the use of chemical pesticides is avoided, etc.
Private households can offer the hardworking, life-sustaining bees, balconies with herbs. In private gardens may grow "wildness" - even weeds.
I stick to the thoughts of Albert Einstein:
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 people.
To mine, as a human being to be too small and unimportant to have any any to change things is too little. Let's consider how small the bee is, and that, among other things, this small animal through its work keeps mankind alive. - Sincerely, Yours Gisela
