ST. FRANCIS — Happy World Bee Day! Although I'm not sure how happy the bees are on this day dedicated to them. Cold and rainy weather is keeping bees inside their hives on this celebratory day, raising concerns about pollination and food production.
Normally, thousands of bees would be buzzing at the hives at the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi in St. Francis, but the colder-than-normal May temperatures have them staying warm inside their hives.
"We still have winter wraps on a couple of our hives because we're trying to keep them as warm as possible as long as possible," said Charlie Koenen, who runs BeeVangelist, said.
BeeVangelist is an education, advocacy, and beekeeping supplies company owned by Koenen. He helps maintain the hives at the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi. Keeping hives insulated this late into May isn't normal.
"If bees don't pollinate flowers, flowers don't produce the food that all the critters need to eat, and then the critters that eat the critters and all the way up to us," Koenen said.
Koenen has actually had to bring food to the bees rather than the bees finding it naturally. A wild species needing human assistance isn't a great thing.
This is why the United Nations began World Bee Day in 2018—to bring attention to the environmental changes and population decline that bees experience. The UN says 75 percent of the global food crop depends on bees. When the weather stays colder and bees don't get out, our food crops are impacted.
Watch Cold spring has beekeepers concerned about quiet hives on World Bee Day...
"Bees are under threat. Present species extinction rates are 100 to 1,000 times higher than normal due to human impacts. Close to 35 percent of invertebrate pollinators, particularly bees and butterflies, and about 17 percent of vertebrate pollinators, such as bats, face extinction globally. If this trend continues, nutritious crops, such as fruits, nuts and many vegetable crops will be substituted increasingly by staple crops like rice, corn and potatoes, eventually resulting in an imbalanced diet. Intensive farming practices, land-use change, mono-cropping, pesticides and higher temperatures associated with climate change all pose problems for bee populations and, by extension, the quality of food we grow," according to the United Nations' website on World Bee Day.
It's why the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi in St. Francis started beekeeping in 2012—to promote pollinators and give them habitat.
"If we take care of the earth, it will take care of us," said Sister Helene Mertes.
The Sisters plant vegetables, fruits, and flowers to support bee populations. Other ways people can make a difference include reducing lawn space, growing gardens, planting native species, and supporting local honey farmers.
Bees are our friends. They do a lot for us, so we should do what we can to keep them happy, too.
This story was reported by James Groh and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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