Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Easy Ways to Help Honeybees! You can do it!

Saturday, August 18 is National Honey Bee Awareness Day.  Their website states that the 2012 theme is “Sustainable Agriculture Starts with Honeybees.”

“The primary goals of the National Honey Bee Day Program include:
1) Promotion and advancement of beekeeping.
2) Educate the public about honey bees and beekeeping.
3) Make the public aware of environmental concerns as they effect honey bees.”

So what can you do to Help the Honeybees?

1.  Watch Vanishing of the Bees and recommend to your friends and family.  Heck, share it with strangers!  It’s an amazing movie and you can find in on Netflix and a short chip on youtube.

2. Plant bee-friendly flowers and plants.  Mary’s Heirloom Seeds offers a quite a few bee-friendly seed varieties such as BorageCalendula (marigold), Lavender, Cucumbers, Squash and Echinacea.  For a full list check here.  I have extended the sale on ALL Herb seeds at Mary's Heirloom Seeds until the 19th to celebrate National Honey Bee Awareness Day!

3. Stay away from using harsh chemicals in your garden and yard.  Most chemical pesticides also kill beneficial insects.

4.  Support your local beekeepers.  Buying local honey is a great way to show your support and is a delicious treat.  It has been suggested that eating local honey can help with seasonal allergies.  Local honey is also eco-friendly as it does not have to travel thousands of miles and possibly contain nasty chemical additives.

5.  Learn more about bees, beekeeping and CCD.  Have you ever considered backyard beekeeping?  Now would be a great time to learn more!

I've written several times about CCD and the increasing use of GMO crops.  Several researchers have gone as far as to say that there is a direct correlation.  Watch Vanishing of The Bees!

**There is still time to enter Mary's Basics lip balm giveaway!  ALL of our lip balms use a vegan (veggie-base) wax (not beeswax) so they are bee-friendly**

20 comments:

KC Coake said...

I had not heard of this day. I have heard of the direct correlation and that Monsanto bought the company up that did that research. Kind of scary. Thanks for the awareness of the Honeybee day.

Mary Smith said...

Thanks for stopping by! Definitely check out Vanishing of the Bees!

Lisa Lynn said...

Thanks for posting this! I recently read that a new class of pesticides used on corn might be responsible for CCD. Many beekeepers use corn syrup to feed their bees because it is cheaper than sugar and the pesticide is present in the syrup. I think they were called neonictinoids...not sure about the spelling.

Mary Smith said...

Lisa, I've heard about the new pesticides. I've watched a few bee movies and I'm almost in tears at what's going on with the bees and also the beekeepers who are watching their bees die.

Jessi @ Practically Functional said...

My grandfather used to keep bees. Actually, I think they were my dad's bees that sort of fell to Poppa after my dad went away to college :-) Thanks for all of the info, and thanks for sharing at The Fun In Functional!

Mary Smith said...

Hey Jessi! Thank you for stopping by. We have to do our part for the bees!

Crystal said...

Your post is so educational!!! If you have time I would LOVE for you to come share these in The Mommy Club this week. I'm new to homeschooling so these are super tips and I would love to teach my boys about honeybees.

Thanks much, Crystal
http://www.crystalandcomp.com/2012/08/the-mommy-club-share-your-resources-and-solutions-57/

Mary Smith said...

Hi Crystal! Thank you for the invite, I just shared.
If you have a moment, check out the rest of the bee information.
I also have a giveaway going that ends August 19th and it's bee-friendly!

bonbon said...

Such great information! Thanks for cluing us all in. I know that I for one know nothing about bees so this is so helpful. I'm going to try to buy local honey from now on! Just found your blog and I've loved looking around and getting to know you better. I'm excited to follow along!

new follower :)
bonnie
bonnielouisa.blogspot.com

JoAnna said...

I get so excited in the summer, when I have zinnias and sunflowers and squash of all kinds and the milkweed is in bloom and it's just a bee fest out there!!!

Mary Smith said...

Bonnie, local honey just tastes better. Some commercial companies actual add stuff like HFCS or syrup, all for profit!

Sparkling, love the bee fest!

Heidi@OneCreativeMommy.com said...

I'm a gardener. I love bees! (My kids don't, though!)

The Thriftiness Miss said...

I've heard of this. It's so crazy what could happen to us if all the bees were to disappear. Great bee awareness post :)

Betsy @ Romance on a Dime said...

This is a great list of ideas. Thanks for linking up at Romance on a dime's TIOT party!

Anni S said...

Great post!

The "Weekend Wanderings" brought me here :)
Hope you are having a good one!

Smooches from Germany,
Anni

Nicole said...

This is a great topic. I appreciate that you shared this on Show Off Friday to help inform people of the plight of the bees.

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing this. I have been reading about the connection between pesticides and bee die offs. Thanks so much for sharing on Tout It Tuesday. Hope to see you tomorrow.

Unknown said...

This is our first year doing backyard bee keeping! I would also like to mention that if you happen to find a bee hive or swarm that you can call the local bee keeper association and someone will come and move them without exterminating them with nasty pesticides. Yay for bees! Thanks for sharing at Mom's Library!

Trish - Mom On Timeout said...

Great information! I'm going to do what I can! Thanks so much for sharing at Mom On Timeout! -Trish

Adorned From Above said...

I had no idea about any of this. What great information. Thank you so much for sharing with Wednesdays Adorned From Above Link Party last week. This weeks Link Party is opened at http://www.adornedfromabove.com/2012/08/tangerine-toner-and-wednesdays-adorned.html
Hope to see you there.
Debi Bolocofsky
Adorned From Above
www.adornedfromabove.com