Got a bee in your bonnet? Lucky you!

© Duchess O’Blunt, 2009; all rights reserved.

When I was young, my brother and I would often spend hours outside "investigating". That could be anything. We didn't have a computer, no video games or even a TV, so our imagination was our best friend. Well, we did have each other, but imagination came with us just about everywhere.

Visiting grama and grampa when you are young means spending time with wrinkly older people who smelled funny, loved to pinch your cheeks or pat you on the head and tell you tales you had no patience to listen to.

We would do what we had to and wait until no one was looking and hightail it out of there at the very first opportunity. Sometimes we got away with it and sometimes they managed to catch a small piece of our shirt or pants and haul us right back in. At that point, the finger usually came out. No point in agitating them after that, the finger was our warning that the grown ups had no more patience with us.

There was one day that lives in my memory, where I look back and think "Gees... I wish they had grabbed my shirt THAT day!"

As usual, the two of us clamored off on our own and went exploring in the woods back in behind gramps place. It was a great place to explore, with bugs and holes, and sticks for swords. We found great hiding places, old bike parts and even an old chair. It didn't take us too long to find a fallen tree that had this "thing" attached. We made short work of stalking around it, looking at it from every angle as we tried to imagine what it was. Soon, the swords in our hands became bats so that we could knock it down and take a closer look.

oooooops

AYIAAAAAAAA! We were both screaming and running as fast as our little legs would carry us right back to the same people we tried so hard to sneak away from. It seemed that each step we took brought with it another painful sting.

By the time we reached our parents we were a mess. And I mean that quite literally. It's a darn good job we were not allergic! We were crying, and hopping around and waving our arms, crying, "It hurts! It hurts!" I'm not sure how they managed to calm us down enough to spread our bodies with baking soda and mud (they ran out of baking soda), but soon the shouts quieted into sobs and we were allowed a cool bath, which soothed the sobs into sleep.

Sometimes it pays to listen to the wisdom of our elders.

Where have all the bees gone?

In the 80's rapid growth of certain orchards in China saw them using more pesticides killing entire colonies of bees that would have naturally pollinated those same orchards. Now, China employs thousands of their village people as human bees. Brushes made from chicken feathers to cigarette filters are dipped into bottles of pollen and then "touched" to millions and millions of blossoms. Manually.

Colony Collapse Disorder. Whole colonies of bees have been known to just die. It's happening everywhere. "In Britain, the British Beekeepers Association has warned that honeybees could disappear entirely from the island by 2018, along with £165 million worth of apples, pears, canola and other crops they pollinate."Source: Newsweek

Bees are disappearing slowly. We need to focus on how to reverse the process. What would the world be without them?

I am not a scientist - in fact I hated science in school. What I remember about pollination from those few classes I didn't manage to fandangle my way out of was that bees pollinate our flowers. No big deal right? Wrong! Here are some pretty amazing facts that you just don't think about when you think of bees.

• 250,000 species of flowering plants depend on bees for pollination. Many medicines, old and new, pharmaseudacle and alternative are derived from flowering plants
• most of our major crops - across the world - depend on bees for pollination
• without pollination, fruits and vegetable would become very scarce
• clothes made from cotton would be rare and expensive

It seems that the error of my ways in my youth have followed me because even still if there is a bee around, I am the one that gets stung. No kidding, it's an observation made by many. But lately, no bee stings.

And, our bees are a little strange. They don't act the way I remember bees are supposed to act, or I'd have more stings to add to my story.

Moths, now they are known to fly into the flame, I believe because they are attracted to the bright lights.

That is not typical behaviour for bees. So, our bees are not typical. Keeping the porch light on at night in the early fall means we have dead bees littered all over the porch come morning. Now I ask you - is that normal? No.

So being the inquisitive type, I stay up to watch what happens. Not surprisingly there are bugs flying at the light, and when one drops I glance down expecting to see a moth. Not so - it's a bee. Frowning, I watch as the stunned bee tries to get up. He looks a little drunk and staggers around on the ground for awhile but after a few minutes he manages to spread his teeny tiny little wings and flies - right back into the light. This time he doesn't get up. I guess he doesn't know he's not a moth. Talk about your identity crisis. Or is this part of the same problem?

We turn our porch light off as soon as everyone is in the house. Not only to conserve energy, but to help save our bees.

Man is responsible for the dissaperance of our bees, so what can we do to alter this?

• Support those who support the bees. Buy one of natures most beneficial natural products, and enjoy the sweetness of honey. Here is a great hub on the health benefits
• Think carefully before destroying their habitats.
• Don't pour concrete over beautful gardens - plant a flower - plant a tree. Let some of your gardens grow wild, let the bees live a litte!
• Use plants instead of bricks to line your walkways
• Don't use pesticides or herbicides
• Rent a beehive
• Make meadows not lawns (like the video clips says)
• Build bee houses - yes just like bird houses - only for bees
• Turn off the porch light

And my personal all time favorite

• Avoid getting stung as this kills most species - not to mention how much it hurts!

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