#happyjunebugs

literally everyone: companies need to do more to help save the bees

Happy Wednesday!

As spring kicks off, it’s planting season! Here are some lovely flowers or herbs that you can plant in your backyard to help attract our pollinators.

Lavender 🌱🍇: Lavender has a beautiful smell, and once you plant it, it will grow every year on its own. It also adds lovely colour to your yard.

Borage 🌱💜💙: It’s a never-ending supply of hiding spots for bees. It also has a very pretty colour, and lures the bees over to help pollinate other plants. Sunflowers 🌻: They are very tall (can grow up to 6 feet!), so if you want to help our honeybees but are allergic or do not want to risk the chance of being stung, it keeps the bees up high and out of your way. Poppies ❤️🍀: The poppy is a very important part of history, and shows respect to all who fought in war. It also is very pretty, and bees love it. Hollyhocks 🌺💕: These flowers add beautiful colour to your garden, and bees admire them. Although, if you have a dog, DO NOT plant these. They are extremely dangerous if consumed by a dog.

Blueberry Bush 🍊💙: A delicious food that will attract bees and provide you with a healthy snack!

Buttercup 🌷💛: Includes a lot of pollen in the middle, and is very pretty!

Sage 🌱💞. Sage has one of the longest histories of use of any culinary or medicinal herb, and is very pretty in a garden. Bees also love the pollen! 

Cosmos 🌸 :  These flowers are very easy to plant. Simply scatter them in your yard, and they’ll grow! 

Happy Thursday! The most common types of bees include the honey, bumble and carpenter. But did you know that there are over 20,000 species of bees, flying around the Earth, all performing a bunch of really interesting jobs?

Today, we’re going to learn about a few that make up the world. Protect all pollinators!

Cuckoo Bees

These bees are parasitic, and they don’t connect pollen because of the lack of pollen sacs on their legs. So, how do they take care of their young? Unfortunately, they actually invade the hives of other bees in many different ways to raise their young- from laying their eggs in brood chambers before the host is capable of doing the same, or killing the queen of the hive and forcing the workers to raise their young. Sometimes, in bumblebees’ nests, the bumblebee will raise the cuckoo bees unknowingly- just like their own. These bees’ larvae are just as harsh, too- they have massive jaws that are used to attack the hosts’ larvae. They are TRULY cuckoo, beware of these bees!

Digger Bees

The name of these bees comes from the actions of some species, for when the male senses the presence of a female bee, they dig into the ground to wait for her. These little bees usually nest alone, which is hard to think of when you hear that honeybees can have a hive of more than 50,000! They have a very mild sting, in which they are very careful with using, and also have longer antennae. The digger bees’ nests are built in either the wood or the ground.

Mason Bee

These bees are some of the easiest to keep- and in my post here you can find out how to do it! I am currently, I can’t wait to see them in the spring! A pretty cool fact about these bees is that sometimes, they will nest in empty snail shells.

Leafcutter Bees

The leafcutter cuts a piece of a leaf off using their sharp jaws, and then carry it to their nest between their legs. It’s really interesting to see- their favourite flower is the rose. They use these pieces to build their nests, in which they store pollen, honey and eggs inside. The female bee does pretty much all of the work, too.

Killer Bees

Finally, some of the bees that I find to be quite interesting. These bees were created by scientists- in the 1950s, Brazilian scientists bred African honeybees with European honeybees to try increasing honey production. They quickly adapted to their new habitat and their population skyrocketed. They are very, very useful for crop pollination, and almost resemble the honeybee exactly- however, they are much more aggressive. If their hive is ever to be disturbed, they can chase their new enemy for a very long time – up to a quarter of a mile - and it takes a while for them to cool down. They stick together, and sting together.

We’ve sprung into spring and summer - and with that comes our pollinators. 

With a beautiful new month, I will be running a small social media campaign to encourage the protection of our pollinators! 

This month, you will see many new posts from me including:

Bee Facts to help end the stigma around not liking these amazing creatures

Easy DIY ways that you can help protect the bees 

Sharing interesting videos, photos, etc

Photo contests, etc

& more!

I will be encouraging submissions and questions to the blog as well! This campaign will be called #HappyJuneBugs! Tag your posts with this to be reblogged!

Great question! Funny you ask because I’m a high school student as well. I’ve often felt like it’s impossible to make a big change at a young age - but after discovering the impact of this platform, my perception has definitely changed!

Here are some ideas:

Encourage your neighbourhood to move away from using pesticides on crops, lawns, etc

Buy local! From markets, independent grocers, etc. Especially for honey

Use social media to make an impact! Share posts you see about bees on your stories, etc and help inspire those around you

Host an event that helps plant seeds at your high school, like I did

Sign a petition

… or make your own

Set up a bee house, bee water station, or save a bee you see!

Adopt a hive - often, beekeepers will take care of it for you, you can support the hive either financially or through moral support (and visiting the hive!)

Help show the difference between a wasp and a bee!