TY Bees by Abbhay Singh

What are Pollinators?

21asingh1_1 — 2024-10-06 19:32:33 UTC

Pollinators (E.g honeybees, flies and butterflies) are a type of insect that carries pollen from one flower to another. The pollen gets stuck to their bodies when they land on flowers to suck their nectar. By dropping pollen on other flowers, they allow the flowers to reproduce. This is a codependent relationship since pollinators need the nectar of the flowers to get energy and the flowers need the pollinators to spread their pollen.

A Bee sucking nectar from a flower

21asingh1_1 — 2024-10-06 19:33:06 UTC

My diagram of a Bee

21asingh1_1 — 2024-10-06 19:34:41 UTC

Different types of Bees

21asingh1_1 — 2024-10-06 19:37:55 UTC

One thing the honeybee and bumblebee have in common is that the Queens are the largest bees. Bees are a majority female species. Male bees appear to be the smallest and they die after mating with the queen. They have more pronounced antennae as their purpose is to find the queen as quickly as possible

The importance of bees to Irish crops

21asingh1_1 — 2024-10-06 20:55:42 UTC

One third of all Irish crops need bees to help them reproduce or else they’ll go extinct. Some of these species include apples, strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, plums, cherries, carrots and onions.

Honeybees and Bumblebees are Eusocial insects meaning that they have hierarchies within the hive consisting of a queen at the top, with female workers and male drones. These Eusocial species of bees only make up 3% of the total amount of bee species worldwide (20,000). The rest are called solitary bees.

21asingh1_1 — 2024-10-06 21:08:23 UTC

Bees communicate through various dances called the Waggle, Round and Tremble. These dances communicate where food or predators may be using direction in relation to the hive

21asingh1_1 — 2024-10-06 21:10:24 UTC

Birth of a simple honeybee

21asingh1_1 — 2024-10-06 21:12:33 UTC

Life cycle of a simple honeybee

21asingh1_1 — 2024-10-06 21:13:14 UTC

Bees are in danger

21asingh1_1 — 2024-10-06 21:19:07 UTC

The things threatening them are the loss of their habitats for them to live in, decreased diversity in the food available to them which leads to them not having sufficient diets, pests and disease are affecting their number, particularly Varroa Destructor, Pollution from agricultural pesticides and climate change

How can we save the bees?

21asingh1_1 — 2024-10-06 22:04:50 UTC

The most important and effective way to help bees is to plant a diverse range of flowers and plants throughout the year in your home garden. Allowing a patch of grass to grow and produce clovers and weeds can immensely help bees. You should avoid planting red flowers as bees cannot perceive the colour red due to their visual receptors. Bees can see blue or yellow much easier. Spring is difficult for bees as they need to work hard during this time while not many flowers are in bloom so adding some springtime blooming flowers like Pussy Willow, Bluebell, Mahonia and Hebe would greatly benefit bees. During the Summer, Honeysuckle and Thyme are great sources of food for bees, and Heathers, Knapweed, Scabious, and Sunflowers are also viable Summer flowers. Many solitary bee species nest in banks that face towards the south, so leaving exposed areas of soil at the edges of lawns or creating south facing banks will attract ground nesting species.

Resources to learn more about how to protect the bees

21asingh1_1 — 2024-10-06 22:07:13 UTC

local beekeeping associations

Biodiversity Ireland's Pollinator Initiative

UK Bumblebee Conservation

Pollinators.ie