Bees are Important (Winning Yr8 speech 2014)

I’m here to tell you some facts SO amazing, they’ll make you forget what you had for dinner two years ago today.

Does anyone remember?...

See? I haven’t even started and you’re already amazed.

Here’s the deal. Bees, the so called ‘terrors of the sky’. But are they really as scary as you think? And could their species be in danger? Here are some things you may want to pay attention to about our little buzzing friends.

First, let’s start by taking a look at a bee.

As you can see,  Bee’s are 100% cute passiveness. They’re fluffy; which not only makes them even cuter, but actually aids in pollenating flowers. The pollen gets stuck to the Bee’s fluff, and when it goes from flower to flower, it leaves the other flower’s pollen behind and takes up the new flowers pollen. Pollen will sometimes be taken back to the hive to make honey, which is better for you than sugar, but that’s another topic.

Now, let’s face it. This stinger isn’t too cute, is it? But bee’s don’t use it unless they absolutely have to! Under normal circumstances, a bee would sting you only if you were A. Too close to it’s hive or B. You’ve sat on it, touched it, swatted at it… Somewhere along those lines.

Here is something that WILL shock you, it certainly shocked me when I read it but… Did you know that 37 MILLION Bees dies last year! That is more than 20 million times the population of Cambridge.

But what is making our Bees disappear so quickly? Well, one of the causes is the Verroa Destructor, or Verroa Mite. These little nasties attach to Bees and suck the life from them. And according to Wikipedia, the Verroa mite has only been introduced to New Zealand within the last 14 years.

You may be thinking ‘Bees and wasps are pretty much the same thing, right? They both fly and they’re yellow… Gotta be the same thing!’ But let me tell you, Bees and Wasps are two very different species.

 Wasps are clearly skinnier and not fluffy. They are extremely scary-looking and menacing, bee-eating voids of aggravated death. They are in no way shape or from similar to a bee. Wasps attack everything in sight without provocitation. They are not peaceful, nor should they be reckoned with.

What do you think you should do?

Well, if leaving it alone isn’t your best option, call a Beekeeper! They’ll come collect your little garden visitors in a safe, humane way so they can be used to boost the Bee population. Think of all the jobs you’d save! You’d be helping the Florists, farmers, herbalists, candlemakers and of course, beekeepers!

Today you have learned that bees are non-aggressive, that their numbers are in danger, that Bees are not the same as Wasps and who you’ll be helping simply by calling a Beekeeper instead of an Exterminator. So next time a Bee lands beside you or on you, don’t scream and swat at it! Keep calm, carry on and think of th work it’s doing for all of us.