The Wonder of Bees

• By administrator
• September 29, 2021January 15, 2026
• agriculture bees flowers food crops food supply My Blog pollination threat
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As I was enjoying my coffee out on my patio this morning, I noticed one particular bee working diligently to get to each and every blossom on one of my patio plants.  I couldn’t help notice how methodical he was and I instantly thought about how “mindful” he was being to place attention on each individual flower.  I sat there for a half hour and watched in amazement as he covered the entire plant.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could all be so mindful on a daily basis.

I never realized how important bees are in the scheme of things until I read an article about the diminishing population and the threat to our food crops without their assistance with pollination.  Did you know that since 2006, beekeepers have noticed that their honeybee colonies are decreasing with more than 30 percent of these colonies disappearing each year?

I sure didn’t.  What I also didn’t realize is that bees are the leading pollinators in the world and we depend on them to help produce food crops which contribute to one third of the world’s food supply according to Nature.com.  Without bees, the produce section at the market would be reduced by up to 50 percent and could pose a major threat to global agriculture.  Some of the reasons for the disappearance of the bees are attributed to increased pesticides and insecticides, the spread of viruses and disease, habitat loss, poor nutrition, the varroa mite and other stress factors.

In parts of China, the need for hand pollination has already become a reality. This process is far less efficient than the pollination work done by bees so many organizations are putting their efforts to use by sending seeds to people to plant in their yards in hopes of attracting more bees.  Let’s all help out by planting more flowers in our yards.  We get to help the world’s food supply but we also get to enjoy the flowers and moments like I experienced this morning watching one small bee do it’s part for humanity.