National Honey Bee Day was August 18, the week we celebrated the small but mighty creature.
Here’s what you need to know about honey bees:
• One-third of our food in the U.S., including 130 fruits and vegetables, depends on pollination from honey bees and other insects; read more.
• The honey bee is one of more than 20,000 distinct bee species around the world; read more.
• A honey bee can visit 50 to 1,000 flowers in one trip; read more.
• The number of honey bee hives in this country has decreased from six million in the 1940s to about 2.5 million today (USDA). Since 2006, an estimated 30 percent of bee hives have collapsed as a result of disease, parasites, poor nutrition, and pesticide exposure; read more.
Here’s what you can do to protect honey bees:
• Take Earth Day Network’s Pesticide Pledge to help reduce the amount of pesticides that are killing our honey bees and other pollinators.
• Support local beekeepers by getting your honey from local farmers’ markets and other local businesses; read more.
• Create a pollinator habitat with bee-friendly plants in your yard or on your school or business property; read more also more here.
• Plant a bee water garden to attract pollinators; read more.
• Support Earth Day Network in their work to protect our flying, fuzzy, furry and even our slimy, slippery animal friends; info@earthday.org.