If bees find good living conditions in gardens, this also applies to many other species. You can find out more about the benefits of bees in the garden here.
In an ecosystem, many factors are interconnected like cascades. Changing a single cog in the system can create a wave of unpredictable reactions. We live in an almost incomprehensible, complex world that is changing at breakneck speed. Insects are dying, but we still know far too little about where insect mortality is headed and what we can do about it. So it's good if we can stick to the best researched insect: the honey bee. If we help her, we also help others and ultimately ourselves. It's best to start with those Bees in your own garden at. In the following we have summarized what bees actually do and how we can support them in the garden - a major concern for us as the Plantura team.
contents
- pollination and species diversity
- bee products
- Nature experience and bee protection
The "Bien", as beekeepers affectionately call the superorganism from the Hymenoptera family, provides invaluable services to people and ecosystems. Each one is reason enough to have your own garden or balcony bee-friendly to plant, if you can't keep your own bees. For this purpose, for example, the seed mixture of the Plantura bee pasture excellently suited. We show why the bee is so important.
pollination and species diversity
This is one of the most important arguments for the gardener: bees are pollinating insects for a large part of the native flora and cultivated plants. They are also "bloom-stable", which means that during a trip they fly to flowers of the same plant species as much as possible. This makes them a reliable pollinator, because the flower must come into contact with pollen of the same species in order to produce fruit. Many other pollinating insects, on the other hand, visit matching flowers purely by chance – or sometimes not. The help of the bees is therefore indispensable in fruit plantations and in the vegetable patch. According to a study from England, they are responsible for at least a third of all pollination. But what makes the harvest really good is the balanced interplay between different species. In Germany alone there are around 600 bee species. So wild bees, bumblebees, flies and beetles take over the lower temperature excursions and have other pollination techniques that complement each other well.
If you don't want any additional work, but "only" want better pollination, you don't need to become a beekeeper right away. As is so often the case in nature, a high level of biodiversity and the right mixture help complex processes in the ecosystem to regulate themselves without further human intervention. And yet our full commitment is required when it comes to preserving this biodiversity. Seed mixes like Plantura bee pasture contain a wide variety of bee-friendly flowers and herbs that optimally provide the bees in your garden with food. tips for one bee friendly garden you can read here.
Incidentally, the bee not only contributes to biodiversity through pollination, but also forms an important part of the food chain for insectivorous animals with its high biomass. For your orientation: A pair of tits needs about 20,000 insects to raise their brood. A queen bee produces 2000 bees per day. If the bees die, so do the people - a formula that has been heavily overused by the media lately. However, there are also new scientific research results that support this connection. The importance of bees for human nutrition is illustrated by the following figure: According to an American study could save 1.41 million more people a year from malnutrition and hunger just from the lack of pollination to die.
bee products
Who not only increase the yield of the vegetable garden, but also the whole range of bee products wants to use, for him the promotion of the bee is just as interesting, maybe even come one own hobby beekeeping in question. Because the bees not only have honey to offer: pollen, propolis, royal jelly and wax are the most important raw materials, which in turn can be refined into numerous different products and used as medicines in apitherapy will. As a garden lover, you can capture the individual taste and scent of your own garden in a honey jar. With a little experience and marketing skills, the hobby finances itself or there is even some pocket money left over. In addition, hobby beekeepers make up 95 percent of the beekeepers and thus make the lion's share of the preservation of the bee colonies. The average number of colonies per beekeeper is almost seven colonies. Diseases and winter failures do not hit several hundred colonies of a beekeeper at once, but can be compensated for more easily.
Nature experience and bee protection
In the midst of worrying about the state of the world in general and that of insects in particular, one thing must not be forgotten: a day at the apiary can have a wonderfully relaxing effect. It's best to leave the hustle and bustle at home if you don't want to get stung. But then you will be rewarded with an experience for all the senses. The taste of hot honey, the gentle hum of a peaceful people, the scent of the wax and the observation of the mysterious processes in the Stock: Those who have already had experience with bees easily become addicted and would like to join beekeepers out of pure love for these fascinating animals walk. And that's a good thing, because the bees need people: since the introduction of the varroa mite India in the 1980s, European honey bees are completely out of the care of beekeepers dependent. Hardly any colony would survive a winter without Varroa treatment. Bee diseases spread worldwide by humans, pesticide use and climate change are other complicating factors. Even more reasons to become active for the insects.
If you want to keep bees without great effort, because the focus should be on protecting and observing the honey bee, then labour-intensive farming methods are ideal. The interventions in the bee colony are reduced to a minimum, some even do without the honey harvest. If you want to awaken your children's love of nature with the nature experience, beehives with shop windows are ideal. These fascinate children in particular and enable them to experience the complex life of bees up close.
tip: If you want to do something for the bees, but you still have the expense of extensive farming discourages beekeepers, there is another solution: beekeepers are increasingly renting out their bees as "Loan bees". The beekeeper makes his bees available for an annual fee. He takes care of the care and feeding, involves the tenant in the work on the apiary if necessary - ideal for sniffing - and also leaves a few jars of the honey harvest to him.
If you want to learn more about how you can become a hobby beekeeper we have our best tips ready for you here.
