World Bee Day Celebrates Beekeepers and Bees
Bee Health Research Makes Important Discoveries
For us at the National Honey Board (NHB), World Bee Day is every day. But on May 20, we recognize and celebrate the hard work of our beekeepers and bees and the important impact they have on the world’s ecosystem.
World Bee Day is celebrated on May 20th each year, coinciding with the birthday of Anton Janša, the pioneer of beekeeping, who was born in 1734. During his time, he pioneered modern beekeeping techniques in Slovenia and praised the bees for their ability to work hard, while being self-sufficient creatures.
The United Nations launched World Bee Day for the first time in 2018 after famous modern-day beekeeper, Peter Kozmus, petitioned the United Nations to declare May 20th a global day for bees.
Today, World Bee Day is an opportunity for the global public to focus on the importance of preserving honey bees and other pollinators. By spreading awareness about how we can better support the world’s bees, we can help grow the beekeeping profession and watch it transform both the natural world and our economies.
Through partnerships with Project Apis m. (PAm), an organization that funds and directs research to enhance the health and vitality of honey bee colonies while improving crop production, the National Honey Board (NHB) has had an important impact on honey bee health. The NHB-PAm partnership was initiated in 2017, and since then, the NHB has invested in 27 projects shepherded by experts. Scientists and commercial beekeepers have united to implement projects with potential to make positive change in honey bee health, crop pollination security, supply chain and sustainability. The NHB’s commitment is to invest five percent of its annual budget on critical honey bee health research each year, and to date, nearly $4 million has been invested.
“Working with PAm for the past four years has been a great partnership for the National Honey Board,” said NHB CEO Margaret Lombard. “By collaborating, we have been able to amplify the impact of our research dollars and focus on projects that have immediate impact on the health of bee colonies.”
World Bee Day is a time to remember how important bees and beekeepers are to the health of our natural world and our economies. Through research and partnership, we can continue to enhance the health of honey bees, while also improving crop pollination.
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FREE….. Because of the significant change in our lives as a result of COVID-19, many of us are working from home as we ‘social distance’ and quarantine ourselves. The USPS is doing the Best that they can, but mail is being delayed because of this disruption they are experiencing as well. This means, as we have heard from many of you, that your hard copy of Bee Culture is not showing up as in the past. We have a Digital version of Bee Culture. We are making this available to you at NO COST until this situation is over. This is how you can access it and read it for FREE online. Go to www.beeculture.com and click on the “Latest Issues” tap at the top of the page.
We thank each of you as we all go through this together. Hang in there.
The Bee Culture Team
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