Search
Bees are the bearers of life

Bees are the bearers of life

Bees ensure that plants reproduce by pollinating them.

Honey is said to be liquid gold. It is a gift from the bees. But alongside honey and other bee products, bees provide one in three spoonfuls of food in the world by pollinating plants.
Without food, people would not survive. Animals and plants wouldn't either!

Bees find food on honey plants..

These are the plants that are rich in honey, pollen and manna. With their varied colours and scents, these plants attract bees and other insects such as butterflies and bumblebees. They provide food for the insects and at the same time ensure their survival.

 

Through their flowers, the plants secrete a sweet liquid called honeydew or nectar. Each flower also contains pollen, or pollen produced in the stamens. Because bees need this pollen for their food, they collect it.

While collecting pollen, honey and honeydew, bees also pollinate plants. When visiting flowers, the pollen sticks to the bee's hairs and is then transferred from flower to flower by the bee. The bees transfer the pollen to the pistil furrow of another plant of the same species, thus significantly influencing the production of the fruits or seeds with which the plant reproduces. The fruits are, of course, also food for many animals.

The native Slovenian bee breed is the Cranjska bee, or Cranjska sivka. You can recognise it by the grey rings on its rump and the brownish-grey hairs on its chest. It is known for its calmness and diligence.

Honey plants are most commonly found in meadows (flowers, grasses, etc.), forests (lime, maple, chestnut, acacia, etc.), fields (buckwheat, rapeseed, sunflower, clover, etc.) and home gardens (cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, pumpkins, etc.). Bees pollinate crops, fruit trees, spices and herbs and other plants that are an essential part of the human diet. They also pollinate the forage plants that feed the animals that humans keep for their food - milk and dairy products, eggs and meat.

Bees produce more food than they need to survive. Beekeepers take the surplus honey, which they process from honeydew and honeydew.

Honey has been used as a sweetener and food additive in the human diet for millennia. In addition to honey, we also use other bee products: pollen, propolis, royal jelly and beeswax. Bee products are also used for health and therapeutic purposes and are widely used in cosmetics.

 

DID YOU KNOW?

  • Bees have excellent memory. They remember the direction of flight, where they live, their colour, their surroundings, the place where they found their honey and their honeydew.
  • A bee brings 16 to 24 milligrams of pollen from each trip to the hive. That's a tenth of its weight!
  • The taste and aroma of honey depends on the type of plants on which the bees collect their honey.