We have made a real mess of things...

For some of us beekeeping is a hobby with a couple of hives but professional beekeepers keep hundreds, if not thousands, of hives. Revenue from beekeeping is not only from sales of honey, beeswax and propolis products but can also bee from pollinating fruits and vegetables for farmers. Especially professional beekeepers get paid by farmers for placing their hives near, for example, an apple orchid, because without pollination a flower wont turn into an apple all by itself. Moving of beehives from farm to farm and selling beehives over long distances have caused local deceases to have spread all across the globe. One of the main problems beekeepers face is the faroa mite that now threatens all bees even though it was originally a pest from the far east. It is sad to say but we need to treat beehives with precautionary medication so the mites don't decimate a hive. This is also the reason why wild bee colonies are struggling since they can't defend themselves against it. Having said that though, the African honey bees are tougher than the European bees so they are still doing ok in the wild.

What we can do to help the bees:

x   Not using pesticides in gardens or on farms 😡?

x   Plant wild flower meadows (get away from mono culture nature) 👍 

x   Let wild flowers grow (it's my excuse to not mow the lawn too often, though my wife tells me it is a lazy excuse 😂

x   Buy local honey 👍

x   Don't buy unsustainable honey (mass produced honey whereby sometimes total hives are destroyed, sugar is added straight to the product or the bees are fed solely on sugar without having a flower been in sight at all) 🙈