Here is a close up picture of a beautiful bee that must have become exhausted and landed right in my hand to feed on the sour patch candy I was about to eat while relaxing at the beach in Santa Monica CA!
After doing a search by pure curiosity I learned that the coronavirus lockdown was a blessing for the wild bee population that quickly rebounded!
I also learned with much joy that the devastating picture that is often painted regarding what we are often told is close to a bees extinction was not as gloomy as we were told.
A 2018 article in The Scientist states that the idea that “bee populations are rapidly declining as a result of pesticide use” is untrue.
In fact it seems that honeybees in the US, Canada and also in Europe has actually increased a little and went to a 22-year high in 2016.
In 2019, the article says there were 2.67 million colonies.
Picture credit Andreas trepte
It even looks like it’s the idea of Colony Collapse Disorder that is partly responsible for that uptick both in public interest and in funding for honeybee research.
A fun fact about the lockdown, in the UK, bee specialists say that bees are flourishing because officials have stopped maintaining highway shoulders, turning them into flowery habitats for the bees!
Picture credit Terry Yockey
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That's remarkable that the bee landed on you! Sometimes they get tired and just need a recharge. I haven't had that experience myself but I've read that if they do that, they are looking for both sugar and water. If you have water on hand, put it next to the sweet item and they would drink it for the little recharge. Really cool picture you captured!
There is a lot of unfortunate, money-driven and political-driven things like screaming about things like the bees dying off. The articles quote shoddy scientific work and leave out key details. I'm not saying that bees aren't susceptible to pesticides but if you see lots of headlines about something, too often it is driven by money-backed interests who are driving an agenda. Unfortunate how we have come to such times. I do like that a lot of places aren't being trimmed as the highway's in the UK so it gives more wildflowers chances to bloom and flourish for the bees and other pollinators. I've seen a lot of great wildflowers all over the place recently!
If you take a picture off the internet, if you could provide a link to the image that would be great. We really appreciate you giving the person credit by name but dropping a link to the actual picture you found is the best method. I only say that because some people get very defensive about not having a link so I don't want you to fall victim to that! I personally don't care too much but there is a whole group dedicated to making sure people do that so just giving you the information ahead of them finding it!
Will do! Thank you for the comment!