The natural world is made of innumerable moving parts, both large and small. One consistently underrated and critical part of the natural world is the web of relationships that hold it together. Bees, in particular, are center to a host of critical relationships between themselves, other insects, plants, and even humans. By taking a look at some of the interesting facts about how and where bees function, we can gain a greater appreciation for these relationships and indeed all relationships that might otherwise be hidden from us. It just takes a slightly closer look to see how they all come together.
- Bees and Humans
Of course, one of the most important relationships bees play host to is the relationship between bees and humans. Americans also eat a lot of honey per year. It’s a classic treat and, of course, it’s provided to us by bees. But, despite being delicious, it can also be good for you. Bee pollen is high in protein and essential acids. By using this in products for humans, this good can be utilized for kids and adults alike. This slightly acidic also makes it a good anti-bacterial in some situations. Certainly it can help reduce the risk of some illness, however slight. This wasn’t known until recently but now honey can be utilized to help fight yearly colds and flus. Using pure royal jelly and other honeys in teas, etc, is a big help in this way. The help doesn’t stop at health, either. Bees are a huge help to crops in the United States. They help pollinate and enrich millions of dollars of crops every year which, in turn, helps boosts the US economy. The processing of raw honey into organic honey is a sound investment that yields a stable financial yield as well. Bee-keeping, tending to the pure royal jelly, keeping the hives safe, might seem like a nice hobby but it plays a critical role in man-made and natural ecology. That’s why it’s so critical to keep these hives functioning and safe.
Bees and the Natural world
Bees don’t just help humans, either. They play their own pivotal role in the natural world, albeit often in ways that are similar to the ways they help humans. The pure royal jelly in hives can help disseminate natural antibiotics in the wild, for one thing. They also help natural plants pollinate, spreading species to different niches in every environment. Up to 85-90% of wild plants use bees to help pollinate and spread their genes. This might not help us buy the honey bears or honeystix that we love but it’s still important for the functioning of nature. One small piece of bee pollen can carry thousands or millions of grains of flower pollen which is astounding in a whole number of ways. The bees will then carry this pollen far and wide, dropping the plants in places they’ve never grown before. In this way, bees are an unwitting harbinger for ecological diversity. This not only helps different environments thrive but it also helps humans in the long run. Everybody benefits.
Bees Themselves
Bees on their own are fascinating creatures that are capable of amazing things. They can fly faster than 10 mph and go far for such tiny creatures. Each bee will only produce a tiny amount of honey or pure royal jelly in its lifetime but, taken all together, they can produce quite a lot of honey. It’s this industriousness that coined the phrase “busy like a bee.” The structure and diversity of a typical hive can rival that of any large, human city. Everything is accounted for and every bee does their utmost for the health of the hive as a whole. Imagine if all of us humans did nothing but work together for the good of our collective, global society. We could get a lot more done if we imitated the humble honeybee.
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