World Bee Day: How We Celebrate Bees
20th May is World Bee Day. This day is chosen for the birth of Anton Jansa, the pioneer of beekeeping, as the day to celebrate bees for all that they do for us.
So, celebrate with us and bee thankful for everything these amazing creatures do for our ecosystem and our economies.
What role do bees play in our daily lives and the industry?
As we are battling with issues of the environment and sustainability in the last few years, we have witnessed the decline of the bee population. Bees are one of the most important creatures in our ecosystem. They are vital for the pollination of plants that provide an estimated one-third of our food production and they support the growth of trees, flowers, and other plants, which serve as food and shelter for creatures large and small.
What else do bees do?
Apart from honey, bees make beeswax from special glands in their bodies, they collect pollen & mix it with honey to make bee bread to feed their babies. They collect resins and sap from trees and mix it with saliva, secrete the wax from the underside of their abdomens, and then use the beeswax to construct a honeycomb.
For each pound of beeswax provided by a honeybee, the bee visits over 30 million flowers. To produce one pound of wax requires the bees to consume about eight to ten pounds of honey.
Bees are worth around £700m to the British economy and they maintain our beautiful and diverse environment. Unfortunately, the increasing use of pesticides and climate change temperatures has been causing a decline in their population.
We extract beeswax from the honeycomb, it is the purest and most natural of all waxes. This by-product hugely benefits the beauty industry, beeswax is typically found in the use of lip balms, mascara, moisturizers, lip glosses, hand creams, concealers, anti-aging, waxes, and many other skincare products.
How we support bees?
You might have noticed on the back of our packaging our special "Supporting Bees" icon. This shows our support for the sustainability of bees
As part of our commitment to our ethical and sustainability agenda, we help support bee populations and protect their colonies by donating our excess sugar syrup to local beekeepers. Our pure sugar syrup mixed with water provides an excellent alternative source of food when it is too cold outside to travel to find nectar and produce honey. Beekeepers can use sugar syrup as a substitute to stop their hives from starving. We are immensely proud that our local Northamptonshire Beekeepers Association has its apiary thriving. The bees love the sweetness of our syrup!
In the last year, we have donated nearly 20L of sugar syrup to local beekeepers to help sustain their hives.
‘What we take from the environment we should give back to the environment’
How can you help?
Planting bees’ favourite flowers will make your garden a haven for bees and colourful too.
Common Poppy, Lavender, Foxglove, Nasturtium, and Evergreen Clematis are a few that you can plant to help sustain the bee population.
- Plant nectar-bearing flowers for decorative purposes on balconies, terraces, and gardens.
- Raise awareness among children and adolescents on the importance of bees and express your support for beekeepers.
- Set up a pollinator farm on your balcony, terrace, or garden; you can either make it yourself or buy at any home furnishings store.
- Preserve old meadows – which feature a more diverse array of flowers – and sow nectar-bearing plants.
- Cut grass on meadows only after the nectar-bearing plants have finished blooming.
- Offer suitable farming locations for the temporary or permanent settlement of bees so that they have suitable pasture; as a consequence, they will pollinate our plants, which will thereby bear more fruit.
- Use pesticides that do not harm bees, and spray them in windless weather, either early in the morning or late at night, when bees withdraw from blossoms.
- Mulch blooming plants in orchards and vineyards before spraying them with pesticides so that they do not attract bees after being sprayed.
