World Bee Day

The History of World Bee Day

This day stems back to the place known as ‘The land of the good beekeepers’ Slovenia, Beekeeping is taken very seriously over there. They produce gourmet honey; offer beekeeping tourism and they like to say they take their work ethic from the honeybee.

It is on this day because Anton Janša, the pioneer of beekeeping was born on this day back in 1734. The month of May was also chosen for World Bee Day because in the northern hemisphere the need for pollination is at its greatest during this period. But while in the southern hemisphere it is a time for harvesting honey and be products.

The original idea for World Bee Day was made by the Slovenian beekeeper’s association president, Bostjan Noc on September 15^th, 2014. He was driving to work one day and wondered why bees didn’t have their own day. He thought about how much we rely on bees and other pollinators; they are increasingly endangered and can barely survive without human intervention and support. It just seemed right that the global public were aware of this.

The Time Leading to World Bee Day

20^th May 1734 – Birth of Anton Janša, he came from a long line of beekeepers. Bees were a frequent topic of conversation with other farmers, and they would all come together to discuss farming and beekeeping practices.

1766 – Anton enrolled in the first beekeeping school in Europe.

1769 – He worked fulltime as a beekeeper.

1771 – Published the book discussion on beekeeping in German.

2016 – The republic of Slovenia proposed World Bee Day to be celebrated on May 20^th every year at the FAO regional conference for Europe. They had support from ‘Apimondia’, and they are the international federation of beekeeping association.

20^th May 2018 – first observance of World Bee Day.

Why are Bees Important?

Bees are so much more than the fuzzy and buzzy thing we start to see when the warm weather starts to come around. They have a very important role in maintaining our planet. It is very important for us to have trees and wood because they filter out the air, but for us to have these, we also need bees. They are extremely vital to both pollinate food we need to survive and pollinate many trees and flowers that provide habitats for wildlife.

It is also important that we start helping the bees. Luckily, it is not too late to help save the bees from extinction. There are many things we can do as a population to help, which are so easy to do, we can do them from our own gardens.

One of the easiest things we can do is plant bee friendly flowers in our gardens. This gives the bees more access to the flowers and the pollen they provide which will help them out massively.

Another thing we can do is to stop using pesticides in our gardens, they are one of the hey threats to bees. Some pests provide food for crucial pollinators, so leaving them to be controlled naturally is the best choice.

At Unique Magazines we have many gardening magazines that can link into an interest such as this. We have magazines such as Gardener’s world, Easy Garden, Garden News, Garden Answers and so many more.

But the magazine that would be the most interesting would be BQ Bees and Pollinators, this is just packed full facts on bees, pollination and so much more about nature. Why not grab yourself a copy!