Rose Media Group is extremely proud to have become an official sponsor of a beehive at SW Honey Farms in Findon, West Sussex this year. The UK’s bee population is under threat from a variety of factors, including more intensive farming and widespread use of pesticides, so we’re especially happy to be doing something positive for our hive-based heroes. If you’d like to know more about bees – and why wouldn’t you? – here are five facts that we’re buzzing about (Please note, there are dozens of bee-related puns available to all content creators, but we promise here and now that this is the only one we’ll ever use. Honest). With Earth Day 2023 just coming up, we feel we’ve picked the perfect moment to announce our support for these incredible, hard-working winged wonders.
Bees are the most important animals on the whole planet. Fact!
We’ve all heard tales about how we rely on bees to pollinate the foodstuffs we need to survive, of course, and that cannot be overstated. Around a third of all the food humans eat is directly pollinated by bees, but in addition to that around two-thirds of all the crop species on the planet are created thanks to the humble bee. As well as fruits, vegetables and dairy products, we can thank our little friends for herbs, spices and even oils. Some experts estimate that the human race would only last a few years if bees were to suddenly disappear.
The bee population is in serious decline
It’s almost impossible to put an official figure on the number of bees we have in the world, but we do know one thing: that their population is in overall decline. Pollinators in general – this includes bees, butterflies, flies, wasps and beetles – need to be encouraged to thrive. And while there are several reasons for their reduction in numbers, the loss of their traditional habitats is a key factor.
Everyone – and we do mean EVERYONE – can do something about this
Bees and other pollinators love to explore flowers. It’s their reason for existing, and all of us can have an influence on that. Planting a few of your own, even if you only have a window box, can help to make a genuine difference. Your friendly neighbourhood bees can come along, feed happily on the nectar and pick up a certain amount of pollen in the process. They then fly off to other plants and take the pollen with them. This is then redistributed for more plants to be created. It’s a pretty simple but extremely beautiful process, and it keeps our planet ticking along very nicely. If you thought nectar just referred to bonus points in Sainsbury’s, think again.
You’d be amazed at the foods we get thanks to the bees
This blog post would take up too much space if we listed all the foodstuffs that our bees help to create, so here is just a small selection for you: okra, potatoes, cashew nuts, onions, mustard, cauliflower, turnips, papaya, watermelon, chestnuts, oranges, coffee, cucumber, lemons, limes, strawberries, sunflowers, avocado, apricots, peaches, tomatoes and grapes. It’s incredible to think we have access to these food items and more, purely because of the existence of bees. I should also point out that they help to provide us with celery, so they’re not 100% perfect. Celery is horrible, of course.
They work so hard for such a small return
We all know that honey comes from the bee, and that it is truly delicious. But did you know that a single bee will work tirelessly for its whole life and still only produce around a tablespoon of the stuff? Therefore, if you have two slices of toast tomorrow morning with a generous amount of honey on them, that will represent Harry the Honeybee’s entire life’s work. Humbling, isn’t it? Bees travel to between 50 and 100 flowers on a single foraging trip and can reach flying speeds of around 12 miles per hour. The hive’s queen, bless her, lays around 800,000 eggs in her lifetime. These creatures are so awesome, I’m not sure the human race even deserves them.
Rose Media Group is a UK B2B PR agency based in West Sussex. Throughout this coming summer, we will provide you with updates on our beehive sponsorship. To find out more about our services, call 01444 241 341 or email the team at hello@rosemediagroup.co.uk
We hope to hear from you soon.