Hi All.
Recently, say 6 months ago, I started to get into gardening. I am what you call a 'hobbyist'. That is, When I begin to do a small job or project, I do an infinite amount of research on every minute detail, and become addicted. This has been true in almost every hobby of mine in the past 10 years, and gardening has been no different.
I take great pride in my garden and try to involve all the elements to ensure I am doing what is best for the earth and what is best for the eco system around me.
Not to harp on, I have been fascinated with bees for many years now and the latest of my hobbies brings me to the honey bee and how important it is. For most, bees are a nuisance at our bbq, or a source of honey. However their work is much more important than this.
The scariest thing is that they are at great risk and if we lose them, it is said that the human race can only survive a few years without them. They pollinate and basically dictate the growth of fruit when they pollinate..there is way too much info to get into about their important job, but a bit of googling will show you the importance.
America and Europe has massive issues with honey bees, there is something called collapse disorder, where the bees just dont return to the hive, that is, the hive 'collapses' so to speak and it is crippling their crops. Australia has had no cases of this and we actually export our bees to them to assist. There are billions of dollars spent on this research. This website provides more info
www.vanishingbees.com
There is another docco that you should all watch and its called "who killed the honey bee" It is truly fascinating and will scare the pants off you and you will feel like you need to do something...
Which brings me to my point. Something that everyone can do to assist their local community and assist the country as a whole is to start a bee hive. They are not dangerous, they are not hard to maintain and will serve wonders for not only our garden, but the gardens of you entire neighborhood. And also provide you with delicious fresh honey.
Nearly all local councils allow 1 to 2 hives per property and if proper research is conducted, this can be a very very simple process.
I'm sure you'll all agree that this is something we should be passionate about. And please don't use pesticides. It really hurts them.
Cheers.