News

Why bees and their busy bodies are vital for our survival

August 14th, 2024

The role that bees play in supporting the global production of food is well documented – it’s said that one in every three mouthfuls depends upon pollinators such as bees to make it to our collective plate.

And that’s not all – crops that require pollination are up to five times more valuable than those that don’t. Furthermore, an initiative by charity Bees Abroad demonstrated that by placing a bee hive into a mango tree close to a maize crop the yield from both increased by 50%, a particularly interesting finding given that maize is wind pollinated (more of which later).

Economic input

Four years ago figures valued the work of bees at around £670 million in terms of the value of UK crops they pollinated. If we had to employ people to do their work it would cost at least £1.8 billion according to the 2019 figures, so obviously far more now.

Bees and other pollinators are vital to our health and economy but they are under increasing pressure from loss of habitat, pesticides, climate change and – most recently – the devastating arrival of Asian hornets, which can wipe out colonies in days.

Many of these topics were discussed at the recent Bee Fayre held in Wootton St Lawrence, Hampshire, to mark the 400th anniversary of the publication of The Feminine Monarchie, a seminal study of the lives of bees by The Rev Charles Butler, considered by many to be the father of English beekeeping.

The Rev Butler was, from 1660 until his death in 1647, vicar of Wootton St Lawrence parish church and is buried there. The fayre marking the publication of his landmark work – which for the first time identified that hives were female (and not male) led, was held within the church and village meadows. Visitors were able to enjoy a ‘walk-through’ Hive Education Centre designed to tell the ‘bee story’, meet beekeepers and understand more about creating a sustainable environment for all pollinators.

Coincidentally Wootton St Lawrence is also home to Wallbarn’s green roof nursery beds. It’s there, in conjunction with Sedum Growers, that we plant, nurture and harvest the sedum and wildflowers for our award-winning modular M-Tray green roof cassettes.

It is, however, no coincidence that our nursery has beehives on site; the sedum and native British wildflowers that we grow to maturity before dispatching to site as part of the modular M-Tray system provide a perfect and complete food source for bees, both those cultivated for honey and the wild bee population in the area.

Hive hierarchy

David Holloway, joint managing director of Sedum Growers, was instrumental in organising the Bee Fayre. He said: “What makes Charles Butler stand out is his use of observations to record the craft of beekeeping and the sounds of honey bees. His book highlights how the hive hierarchy, the honeycomb geometry, bees and music reveal a divine order of nature. His legacy is still revered worldwide and his teachings remain an integral part of modern beekeeping.

“The Bee Fayre was a celebration to tell the whole bee story to our communities, providing education and a practical understanding of the importance of bees and pollinators in a sustainable biodiverse environment,” he added.

Bees Abroad

The event was attended by Bees Abroad, a charity which works with communities overseas to mentor and train people in local beekeeping best practices, creating opportunities and generating income as well as helping protect the environment.

The organisation is currently most active in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Uganda. It was a Bees Abroad project to support a widowed mother surviving on subsistence farming by locating a bee hive in her single mango tree, which had been due to be felled for firewood. The first harvest after the hive was installed yielded 50% more mangoes due to increased pollination thanks to the bees. The charity also noted a similar increase in the women’s maize yield, which it attributed to bees moving the maize heads around, mimicking the action of wind which normally pollinates the crop.

The following year the charity installed a second hive and planted wheat and fruit crops within the maize with similarly effective results, allowing the woman to monetise her crops to buy food and fuel etc. All of which proved the importance of bees in improving pollination.

Bees Aboard enjoys the patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Justin Welby, who sent a video message of support which was played during a bee-themed thanksgiving service delivered by the Rev Ben Kautzer as part of the event. Watch it here

Pollenize

Pollenize, another organisation taking part in the Bee Fayre, believes that pollinating insect numbers – bees, beetles, butterflies, moths, flies, wasps, hornets etc – have declined by 70% in 30 years, posing a potential ‘ecological catastrophe’.

Amongst its projects to counteract this drop in pollinator numbers is a rewilding initiative; it has designed a seed mix of 34 wildflower species and five species of grass seed contained within a packet designed to cover 1m2 and attract bees, butterflies and hoverflies. This seed mix is available from the charity’s website, with supporters encouraged to plot where they plant their seeds on a rewilding map. For more details click here.

But what else can we do to safeguard bees?

A key point that often gets lost in the conversation is ensuring that bees have sufficient food to flourish – and we don’t believe it’s simply a question of providing more hives. In cities, including London, food can be scarce for hive-cultivated honey bees, which are larger than wild bees and have pollen appetites to match. Wild bees are being crowded out. The challenge in the urban landscape is to create more food for all bees, not more hives. Adding hives is producing more honey for us but it is not helping the wild bee population, it is damaging it.

To understand why wild bees are important requires a dive into bee behaviour. Some plants – including blueberries, tomatoes, aubergines and kiwis – require ‘buzz pollination’ which honey bees can’t do. Bumblebees (which only produce tiny quantities of honey) can, vibrating their flight muscles to dislodge the pollen.

Bumblebees are also very good at their job. A 1993 study found that they could pollinate more flowers per bee than honey bees. A further study in 2001 reported that 250 female orchard mason bees (neither a honey bee nor a bumblebee) could pollinate an acre of apple trees. In comparison their honey bee cousins required up to 40,000 busy bodies to achieve the same.

Interestingly, the mason bee is one of the 250 species of solitary bee in the UK. This group is acknowledged for its pollination abilities – a single red mason bee can do the work of around 120 honey bees thanks to how pollen sticks to the underside of its body and brushes off as it buzzes around.

So while we may fete the honey bee, it’s our wild bees that need protecting and we therefore need to be putting bee-friendly food sources back into towns and cities – and that’s where green roofs come in.

Our wildflower and sedum roofs offer a brilliant mix of plants to feed and nourish all bees, from sedum album to porchellum, caesars gold, forget-me-nots, daisies, oregano, sea campion and thrift. A wide range of native (and wild origin) flowering species ensure maximum diversity. It’s a virtual year-round 5* buffet for insects of all kinds. When you take into account that wildflower meadows have declined by around 98% in almost 100 years and the destruction of habitats in pursuit of farming and house-building have taken a huge toll on natural habitats, no green roof is too small or too big.

Conclusion

The Bee Fayre was a fantastic and important opportunity to commemorate a true visionary in the Rev Butler and Wallbarn was delighted to have been involved. The event also served to bring debate about the importance of bees, especially our wild bees, to the fore and better understand their vital role in the production of our food. Frankly speaking we would not be able to eat without our tiny, fluffy friends.

For further details:

Emma Kimber

KimberComs