Green Highways For The Bees – A Positive Approach To Save Pollinators

The bee population has been decreasing at a rapid rate in recent years. There are many causes of this population decline due to different levels of human understanding. Colony collapse disorder is one of the most significant causes; following others is the increased use of pesticides, extreme climatic changes, pollution, urban development, etc. Lack of nutritional sources, i.e., pollen & nectar sources, also results in bee health decline. To solve this problem, people in the UK were encouraged to create bee highways.

What Is Bee Highway?

Bee highways are an inventive and by far the best solution for the issue of the loss of pollinators and flower species. The pathways or highways are created throughout the city and towns, along which wildflower-rich habitats, gardens, and shelters are created & restored. These highways provide enormous areas of brand new habitat helping honey bees and butterflies - yet additionally a host of other wildlife.

To create this large network, lots of hard work was required. Collaboration of local conservationists, landowners, stakeholders and local authorities was done, and by using computer modeling with and without bee-friendly areas were found.

These B-lines or bee highways connect the wildflower areas by creating wildflower-rich patches. Local people are encouraged to be involved in the whole process and are provided with free wildflower seeds to help bees get enough flower sources.

Benefits Of Bee Highways –

The development of the honey bee highways depends on grassroots hierarchical preparation. Everybody can follow through with something, and the more individuals do some little thing, the stronger the network becomes.

If we lose honey bees, we would also lose food crops such as apples, limes, melons, onions, oranges, lemons, avocados, cucumbers, carrots, almonds, and blueberries. Both wild and domesticated honey bees are responsible for pollination.

Bee highways are the ideal feeding grounds for bees. They provide a great variety of flowers for the bees and offer pollen and nectar for the whole season.

Reestablishing wildflower habitats will be helpful to honey bees while additionally giving living spaces to insects, birds, and plants. They should also assist with buffering the impacts of environmental change. Environmental change makes atmospheric conditions change, which might make an animal no longer suited to their current habitat. When temperatures climb, honey bee nests can overheat, leaving honey bees less able to fly. Higher connectivity between habitat patches will empower creatures to go between patches to regions with a more suitable environment.

There will be different advantages to this approach. Farmers will also see increased populations of honey bees and insects, which will help increase food production. This fundamental change in our ethics is highly required for the bees & environment too. Creating a bee highway is an integral approach to bringing positive change.

While there are many advantages, there are additionally a few risks involved. Establishing patches of wildflowers gives a highly concentrated source of food for honey bees and other pollinating bugs, and thus these patches might turn out to be very crowded. It is positively normal for diseases to be passed between honey bees on blossoms that are all concentrated in a small area. This mainly occurs throughout the mid-year when a large number are looking for food.

However, there is no surety that disease transmission will increase or decrease after some time; thus, it is essential to check for signs of disease. Especially on the grounds that a few infections can make them more vulnerable to different stressors, they are presented to, like pesticides.

According to Mr. Basem Barry, founder & CEO of Geohoney, the creation of honey bee highways worldwide is one step in the right direction in handling the bee population decline issue. In addition, they should have broad advantages in developing food crops and for an enormous variety of wildlife.