Honey bees are essential to the survival of humans and other animals. One way or another, we all rely on plants for food!
Bees are some of the earth's most hard working pollinators, but their value to our ecosystem is often taken for granted. Bees pollinate crops, and certain crops need the help of pollinators like bees to produce fruit or seed. The reality is that honey bees are faced with many threats - pesticides, lack of wild forage, disease and human habitation. As people, we all have the responsibility and opportunity to help save the bees from extinction, and it does not always need to be a big action. Would you like to help and restore the bee population? Here are a few practical steps you can do to start:
Melbourne City Rooftop Honey has hives all over the rooftops of Melbourne (like this group below), which shows that it doesn't matter where you live, bees will always find a flower to collect pollen and nectar.
If you want to keep bees to pollinate your garden, Native bees are excellent option, easy to keep and take up very little space if you live on the east coast of Australia. Many varieties are stingless and they require no real maintenance. If you want honey however, bear in mind that they only yield a small amount and it tastes quite different to the honey from European bees.For more information on the plight of bees and what you can do to help, you might also find it useful to watch these documentaries: More Than Honey, Queen of the Sun, Vanishing of the BeesFor more information on how you can get involved, please contact us at Rooftop Honey.
Images: Rooftop Honey | Urban Plains