This #worldbeeday, Bierton Crematorium celebrates being home to honeybees! The installation of the bees supports our ecology and biodiversity goals which are very important to us.
Our honeybees were brought to us at the end of April 2024 to help support our ecology and biodiversity goals . We also have bees at Stoke Poges Memorial Grounds and solitary bee houses at Penn Road cemetery.
Why are bees so important?
The vast majority of flowering plants rely on pollinators, such as bees, to reproduce; fruits and vegetables all rely on pollinators transporting pollen from one flower to the next. But the value of bees goes beyond just supplying countless fruits and vegetables. Bees are also responsible for nuts, coffee, and even spices. Here are the top 5 reasons why bees are important, they:
- Help produce 1/3 of our food supply.
- Help provide 1/2 of the world’s fibres, oils, and other raw materials.
- Help create many medicines.
- Provide food for wildlife.
- Help prevent soil erosion.
We need people to plant more flowers wherever they live – the more flowers, the more food (forage) for the honeybees. Greater food sources enable honeybees to be much stronger in the face of disease. See more info on how you can save the bees here!
Honey is also important because of the fantastic health benefits it has – it was known to the Greeks as the “food of the Gods”. Shop for honey and you’ll see that some are lighter, others are darker. In general, the darker the honey, the better its antibacterial and antioxidant power. Unfortunately, there is a lot of mass-produced adulterated honey around now, it should have its source clearly labelled and be in its ‘raw’ form i.e. nothing added to it.
The bees don’t miss the honey that they make, a strong colony can produce 2-3 times more honey than it needs!
A few facts about bees
- In any hive there are three types of honeybees: a single queen; thousands of female worker bees and, in the summer, hundreds of male drones.
- The drone bee does no work and in the early autumn they are evicted by the workers and die.
- Bees can be quite friendly.
- In the height of Summer there is an average of 35/40,000 bees in a hive. Over the winter, this falls to around 5,000.
- A bee only stings under two conditions – to protect the colony or when frightened.
Can we visit the bees?
We are happy for the public to view the hives but ask that they not be interfered with, they are kept at the side of our grounds for the safety of the bees and the public.
Where can I find out more?
- British Beekeepers Association (bbka.org.uk)
- Friends of the Earth: Why are Bees Important? (foe.org)
