Save the Bees

Lately there seems to be a lot of talk about bees, honey bees in particular. In recent years, there has been a drastic and mysterious die-off of honey bee colonies. Bees are vital to U.S. agriculture, pollinating foods that make up roughly a third, and the most nutritious portion, of our diet, such as fruits and leafy greens. But commercial beekeepers continue to report escalating losses of 42 percent or more, jeopardizing $30 billion in annual revenue and our health.

Scientists now believe that much of the decline is due to Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, which refers to the unexplained disappearance and dying of honey bee colonies. Little is known about CCD, and that has many beekeepers, farmers and the general public worried.

Honey Bees: Nature’s Greatest Pollinators Honey bees are considered to be the greatest pollinating machine when it comes to agriculture. Their large perennial colonies can be moved to wherever they are needed and they can communicate direction and distance from the hive to nectar sources. Honey bees also practice flower fidelity which makes them very efficient pollinators. Flower fidelity is the habit of concentrating on one specific species of flower when gathering and transferring pollen even though the insect is attracted to a large variety of flowers. Honey bees are also excellent at finding the most abundant and sweetest source of nectar near the colony. Scouts communicate information about the source to their brood with what is called “dance language”. Even in the darkness of the hive, the direction in which a bee is dancing can be easily followed by other worker bees and the odor of the nectar that the dancer provides gives the followers a clue as to what kind of flower the dancer has found.

Here at vHiveVoip we want to do our part to help research in identifying the problems and the solutions that impact this incredibly important part of our eco-culture. So we are putting our honey…oops we meant money where our heart is! For every extension that we sell we will donate $25.00 to the University of Florida – IFAS Honey Bee Research & Extension Lab to advance our understanding of managed honey bees and wild bees in Florida, the U.S., and globally, with a goal of improving the health and productivity of bee pollinators everywhere.

We are also providing Bee Friendly Organic Seed Packs and Honey Bee education materials and speaker information to local schools. To request a Bee Pack please email info@vhivevoip.com.

For more detailed on the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences please follow this link.