Our Research

After choosing our topic ‘The Importance of Bees’, we decided to divide the research between the four of us. Ionela researched statistics and facts on bees in Ireland and around the world. Oisin researched the different types of bees, species (in particular Irish bees), and their environments (where they live). Ruth took the role of researching techniques of bee conservation. Finally, Saoirse did research on the importance of bees and their environmental impact.

Bee facts and statistics

Bee populations in Ireland and globally have declined significantly, making them endangered
In Ireland, there are 98 different species of bee. We have the familiar honeybee which is a managed pollinator, and then 97 wild bee species. These include 20 bumblebee species and 77 solitary bee species.
It showed that one third of our 97 wild bees are threatened with extinction in Ireland.
Research is now very clearly showing that to maintain pollination service you need healthy honeybees in combination with a diversity and abundance of wild bees. The problem can’t be solved simply by increasing the number of honeybee hives.
Bumblebees make their nests on the surface of the ground or just underneath, often in long grass, bracken, or at the base of a hedgerow. They generally have between 50-200 workers in a nest. Honeybee hives typically contain 50,000 bees, so bumblebee nests are very small in comparison.
6 species are critically endangered, 10 endangered, 14 vulnerable

Honey bees:

Honeybees can fly up to 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) from their nest in search of food.
Honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including water.
Honeybees, from a typical hive, visit approximately 225,000 flowers per day.
In her lifetime, a honeybee worker will travel about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles)!
In her six-week life span, one worker bee will only make 1/10th of a teaspoon of honey.
The Queen bees will lay as many as 2,000 eggs on a good day or an average of one every 45 seconds.

Types of Bees

Irish Honey Bee

They are dark brown, with no amber or yellow rings.
These types of bees almost went extinct in the 1980’s.
They are indigenous to Ireland.
They do not use a lot of their honey.
They live in small compact nests.
The egg lasts 0-3 days.
Larva- 4-10 days.
Puppa- 11-20 days.
They become an adult bee after 21 days.
They can fly up to 15 miles per hour.
The Queen lays between 600-800 eggs everyday of her 3-4 year life.
They never sleep!
They are the only insect to make food for humans.

Bumble Bees

There are 13 species in Ireland.
The fertilized eggs become females and the unfertilized become male.
They are very important pollinators. They transfer pollen from the anther to the stigma of a plant.
They drink the nectar and gather the pollen on their hair.
Only the female bees can sting, but they are not aggressive.
Once they sting, they die.
They also mostly live in smaller groups.

Solitary Bees

Solitary Bees make up the majority of bees in Ireland.
They have a 1 year life cycle.
They only spend 2 weeks of their life as an adult-therefore they cannot raise their offspring. This means they must make a nest and leave a supply of honey behind.
They do not live in colonies, they either produce honey or have a Queen Bee.
70% of them live underground in burrows.
They drink nectar directly from the flower and spend most of their time collecting pollen which is mixed with a small amount of nectar as food for their young.
They are also not aggressive.

Conservation techniques:

The Irish Wildlife Trust runs an interesting project called “People for Bees”. They deliver talks on bees, their identification, and how to create bee friendly habitats in fun and practical outdoor sessions. Their talks are aimed at community groups and members of the public. They aim to give people knowledge and confidence to start carrying out bee monitoring and habitat creation. The All Ireland Pollinator Plan was created in 2015, and includes 81 actions to make Ireland pollinator friendly.

The New Year Bee Sanctuary gives helpful tips on how to be more pollinator friendly;

No pesticides, fungicides, herbicides on plants in your garden
Buy local and raw honey from local beekeepers, avoid honey sold in bulk, best at farmers market
Plant native and bee friendly plants -source of nectar and pollen
Avoid planting lawns
Don’t weed your garden
Install a little water bowl for bees to drink during summer -few stones and floating corks

The Irish Times also gives helpful advice on how to be more bee friendly;

Garden a bit on the wild side (nettles, uncut grass)
Grow plants in all seasons
Avoid garden chemicals (Neonicotinoid, neonics)
Single-flowered (few petals) are better than double-flowered (lots of petals)
Grow trees (native hawthorn, hazel, alder, ronan, crabapple, willow, horse chestnut)
Grow native flowers (berberis, forsythia, potentilla, lavender, rosemary, mahonia, viburnum, cotoneaster)
Provide plenty of different habitats.

The Importance of Bees and their Environmental Impact

Why are Bees Important?

Globally there are more honey bees than other types of bee and pollinating insects, so it is the world’s most important pollinator of food crops.
It is estimated that one third of the food that we consume each day relies on pollination mainly by bees, but also by other insects, birds and bats.
A few examples of the foods that would no longer be available to us if bees ceased pollinating our agricultural goods are: broccoli, asparagus, cantaloupes, cucumbers, pumpkins, blueberries, watermelons, almonds, apples, cranberries, and cherries.
In tandem with pollination, the beekeeping industry provides an income for beekeepers and their families, as well as an income for suppliers of beekeeping equipment, and goods and services people want to buy (goods like honey and wax, as well as pollination services).

Environmental Impact

Bees are vital for the preservation of ecological balance and biodiversity in nature. They provide one of the most recognisable ecosystem services, i.e. pollination, which is what makes food production possible. By doing so, they protect and maintain ecosystems as well as animal and plant species, and contribute to genetic and biotic diversity.
Over the past 50 years, the amount of crops that depend on pollinators (i.e. fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts and oilseeds) has tripled. Bees play an important role in relation to the scope of agricultural production. Effective pollination increases the amount of agricultural produce, improves their quality and enhances plants’ resistance to pests.
It is not only flowers and food crops that are pollinated by bees.
This point is often neglected, but many (though not all) trees are pollinated by bees (and other insects).Trees in turn, support much wildlife, help to stabilize soil structure and landscapes, and are the lungs of the earth!

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

http://climate.org/7-species-of-bees-added-to-endangered-list/

https://phys.org/news/2016-01-complex-worldwide-bee-declines.html

http://www.biodiversityireland.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Una-FitzPatrick_Data-Centre.pdf

People for Bees. (n.d.). Retrieved November 25, 2018, from https://iwt.ie/people-for-bees/

10 ways you can help save the bees — New York Bee Sanctuary. (n.d.). Retrieved November 25, 2018, from http://www.newyorkbeesanctuary.org/blog/2016/3/3/10-ways-you-can-help-save-the-bees

Fallon, F. (n.d.). How to make your garden a haven for bees. Retrieved November 25, 2018, from https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/gardens/how-to-make-your-garden-a-haven-for-bees-1.3005586

BBC, 2018. Would we starve without bees?. [Online]
Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zg4dwmn
[Accessed 11th december 2018].

Day, W. B., 2018. The importance of bees. [Online]
Available at: https://www.worldbeeday.org/en/about/the-importance-of-bees.html
[Accessed 11th December 2018].

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