Where are the bees?

And why has our regular supply of honey suddenly vanished from the supermarket shelves?

It would appear that the answers to the above questions are twofold.

According to a media release by Capilano Honey earlier this year, extremes in temperatures, both hot and cold, experienced recently can be blamed for the lack of honey being produced, and although it is expected that the bees will be back to their usual buzzy business before too long, during 2014 we can expect shortages on the shelves in the large supermarkets.

But the thing that is most concerning, to those of us who enjoy our toast and honey, is that the population of honey bees is declining world wide, due to a disease called "Colony Collapse Disorder", caused by "neonicotinoids, a form of insecticide that works by damaging the insects' brain functions and shutting down their nervous systems. After a period of excitability, insects exposed to neonicotinoids are paralyzed and subsequently die."

If the use of insecticides is not stopped in time, adding bees to the "extinct" list, imagine the lack of pollination to the plants we sometimes take for granted, for example, those producing ~ Our Food!

This is a very frightening prospect. Butterflies and beetles also carry out their part in the process of pollination, but not with the same success as bees.

So what is the answer?

I managed to buy a large tub of locally produced honey yesterday from our local bulk foods store, and it would seem that short term, we don't have a major problem, however, the answer to the big question, How Do We Save The Bees? is something that I will continue to investigate.

My photo today shows a field of dandelions (my front garden, actually) with not a single bee in sight. Okay, so it is winter here right now, and all the little bees are keeping cosy and warm in their hives, but just imagine if summer came, and there were no bees to visit the flowers! What a gloomy prospect that is.

My first thought for investigation is that perhaps we could set up some new bee hives in our own back garden. And my thought to saving bees is to stop the use of all insecticides.

Do you have any thoughts on this matter? Any ideas of how to increase the population of bees? If everyone can do their bit in helping bees to survive, our children's children will survive too.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step." ~ Chinese Proverb.

Edit ~ Beckett found a very interesting link on this subject too, which you will find here....