Mother's going GREEN Day 82 - Wildflowers and Bees

Most of us have heard about the decrease in bees over the last few years. A decrease of approximately 30% as noted by the US Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service and in 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives.

The decrease in the bee population has become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. The cause of this disorder is still unknown. Possible explanations include pesticides; a new parasite or pathogen; or are under stress which makes them more vulnerable to pests and disease and perhaps limited or contaminated water supplies.

An estimated 80 percent of all flowering plants depend on a living creature, mainly bees, for pollination and seed production. The remainder of the pollinators are other insects including butterflies. “Bees are responsible for one in three bites of food you eat,”says Tuell, who studies bees as a post-doctoral researcher at Michigan State University. In the past few years, honeybees have started to disappear, a puzzle known as Colony Collapse Disorder. While the cause is unknown, some scientists believe honeybees are under stress that makes them more vulnerable to pests and disease.

Bees are responsible for pollinating the food we eat and the farmers need the bees to grow more food for us to eat. No bees equals no or very little and expensive food.

Hear in our home we are trying to create a safe little haven for the bees and have planted wild flowers almost everywhere. They are pesticide free which is what these little guys need and did you know that a bees favourite flower colours are blue, purple, yellow and white. Butterflies like red. (see picture of our flowers to the right)

In this small way we are helping the bees. We have seen a lot bees in our garden (and butterflies too) and no we are not afraid of getting stung and my husband to is slowly overcoming his fear. Like I always tell him when he tries to swat them away: "If you do not bother them, they will not bother you."

Help the bees, the environment and the future of our food and plant a garden for the bees.