Bee-aware and Bee-wear! Why you should know about the “Plight of the honeybee”

Honey Bees have been a staple of suburban gardens for lifetimes on lifetimes, always buzzing around and never really bothering anyone until being bothered themselves. At this point in time, the honey bee is integral to the survival of our agricultural system, and they are slowly but surely dying off.

In a 2013 Time Magazine cover article titled “A World Without Bees” Journalist Bryan Walsh delved into the heart of the issues commonly referred to as the “Plight of the Honeybee”

The first line of the feature read, “You can thank the Apis Mellifera, better known as the Western honeybee, for 1 in every 3 mouthfuls of food you’ll eat today.”

Yes the western honeybee is one of the most important animals in the production of the produce that we consume every single day.

Walsh added later, “Honeybees — which pollinate crops like apples, blueberries and cucumbers — are the “glue that holds our agricultural system together,” as the journalist Hannah Nordhaus put it in her 2011 book The Beekeeper’s Lament. (In fact, nearly 70% off all crops that are grown today require pollination.) But that glue is failing. Bee hives are dying off or disappearing thanks to a still-unsolved malady called colony collapse disorder (CCD), so much so that commercial beekeepers are being pushed out of the business.”

CCD is based on multiple factors, most are cause by human influence, these are:

• Pesticides that human’s spray on our crops.
• Biological Threats like the Varroa mite are killing off colonies directly and spreading deadly diseases.
• Over-production of commodity crops such as wheat and corn that provide no pollen for honey bees and therefore they are literally starving to death.

The population decrease is so profound in some areas that places that were considered honey bee hotbeds like Iowa, has lost 70% of its population over 6 years. (from 2006-2012)

During that same time period, California, lost nearly half of its honey bee population. And from 2010-2015, the United States has lost 30% of its total honeybee population, and bee colonies are now no longer existent.

Canada is not immune to the problem either, but there are many great organizations fighting to save the bees, including Bees Are Life, which is based right in Toronto. We plan to team up with them in the near future.

Our Bee dress is meant to raise awareness around the plight of the honey bee and hopefully work towards changing it to a more hopeful, rebounding, and rising in population, flight of the honey bee.

Check out the beautiful dress below and pre order soon on our website.