ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Where Have All the Honey Bees Gone? The Mystery of the Disappearing Honey Bees

Updated on February 24, 2018
GALAXY 59 profile image

Galaxy is a mother of three who wants to do her bit to make sure this world stays as beautiful as it is for future generations.

Bright colours attract the bees.
Bright colours attract the bees.
Bright orange flower.
Bright orange flower.

Bees Are Perhaps the Most Important Creatures on the Planet

The simple fact is that the honey bees are disappearing worldwide, which is bad for us and bad for flowers, no one seems to know quite why they are going.

Most people know that the numbers of honey bees are diminishing worldwide, scientists are planning to tag two million of the insects in an effort to find out why hives are failing and some species of bees have even reached, or passed, the point of extinction in recent years. Many factors have contributed to this from pollution, pesticide use to loss of habitat. It’s not too late to try to reverse this situation and everyone can do their bit to help.

Why do we need bees anyway, well, the world needs pollinators, that’s a simple fact. Without pollinators, we would have very few flowering plants, bushes or trees and even fewer fruits and vegetables. Up to 30% of the fruit and vegetables that we eat have been pollinated by bees, without them we simply wouldn’t have enough to eat. Bees are excellent pollinators and we must do everything possible to support and encourage them.

Insect House.

Wall hanging insect house.
Wall hanging insect house. | Source

How to Attract More Bees into Your Garden or Yard.

The most important thing to remember if you want to attract more bees into your garden is to not use pesticides. Pesticides kill indiscriminately and will rid your garden of all insect life, even the beneficial ones. Try to go as organic as possible.

Bees enter your garden in search of two things. Pollen and nectar. Pollen provides bees with essential fats and protein to keep them healthy. Nectar gives them energy as it is chock full of sugar. A healthy, well-fed bee will work hard pollinating all day.

Even the smallest garden or yard can be adapted to encourage more bees to visit. From a simple pot, or two, of bright flowering plants on a balcony to an area the size of a football field planted as a meadow. Try to set aside a small area of garden to go wild, allow the grass to grow long as this will attract voles and mice to nest in it.

Queen bees love to nest in old rodent nests. You can buy commercial bee homes and nesting boxes in most garden centres and many supermarkets now carry them too. They look quite attractive and it can be fascinating to watch the bees going to and fro carrying pollen back to the hive, an adult bumblebee can carry almost 60% of its body weight in pollen.

Wall hanging insect nest boxes are very good if you are short on space. They can be used on an outside wall even if you don't have a garden or yard. If you place them near a window you will still get the pleasure of seeing the residents come and go. These small boxes are very good for solitary bees.

Plant Bee Friendly Plants.

Bees love a sunny sheltered spot, so plant a few bee-friendly plants there first. It’s best to use a variety of flowering plants and group them together into large clusters. Bees have very good colour vision and so are attracted to bright colourful plants. They don’t, however, seem to like exotic plants as much as native ones, so try to plant mostly local flowers and trees, they will be a lot cheaper than the imported variety too, which is an added bonus.

Very often you can pick up packs of wildflower seeds at a reasonable price, they are very easy to grow and often require nothing more than scattering them on some rough ground. If you have any seeds left over share them with a friend or take them with you next time you go for a walk and spread them on grass verges and in hedgerows.

Plant flowers that bloom from early spring to late autumn. It’s not only colour that attracts bees but movement and fragrance too, so try to plant a few tall flowers and some highly perfumed ones. Cornflowers, poppies and foxglove are excellent plants as they are colourful, tall and fragrant. They attract not only bees but butterflies too

Pansies Flower for Almost the Whole Year.

Yellow and purple pansies in the garden.
Yellow and purple pansies in the garden. | Source

A Pot of Basil Placed near Strawberry Plants Will Increase the Yield of Fruit.

Strawberry plant and basil.
Strawberry plant and basil. | Source

Plant a Herb box.

If you don’t have the room or simply don’t want too many flowers in your garden why not plant up a herb box. The bees will love it and you will have something useful, tasty and healthy to use.

Chives, thyme, wild basil, rosemary, marjoram, oregano and apple mint are just some of the herbs that will attract bees and are all easy to grow and have a great many culinary uses.

Some herbs can also repel pests and help to encourage growth in other plants.

If you grow your own strawberries try planting basil in the same place to encourage pollination and to increase the crop yield of the strawberry plants.

Most herbs will flower if you leave some unpicked and flowerheads from chives are a wonderful colourful addition to salads, simply pick a few heads and scatter them over your food. You can also use the flowers that appear on rosemary plants.

A Saucer of Water Provides a Welcome Drink for Thirsty Bees.

Bee water dish.
Bee water dish. | Source

Bees Need Water Too.

Don’t forget to put out a small amount of water for bees too, a shallow plate or saucer is perfect for this as bees are too small to drink from ponds or water features.

This is a good job to give the children of the house, which will encourage the next generation to care for our bees too.

Get the kids to plant sunflower seeds in pots and then transplant them to the garden, bees love sunflowers and kids seem to love growing them.

If we look after the bees they will continue to help look after us.

Have you noticed a reduction in the numbers of bees visiting your garden?

See results

© 2010 Galaxy Harvey

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)