bee informed - month of honey - what you can do
TRANSCRIPT
Bee Together c/o Beieveräin Kanton Luxemburg 94 route de Diekirch L-7220 Helmsange [email protected]
Slow Food Grand-Duché asbl 8 rue des Lilas, L-8084 Bertrange [email protected]
What you can do to help pollinators
Our bees (throughout Europe) are in trouble. Urgent measures are needed to protect and help this vital contributor
to the life and health of our countryside. Here are a few ideas on how you can help bees and other pollinators.
1. Support organic farming by buying organic fruits, vegetables and produce. As organic farming practices are more
environmentally friendly, bees, other pollinators and insects are less impacted. A list of farmers, including beekeepers,
producing organic food can be found here.
2. Help to maintain bee populations that are being decimated by pesticides by buying honey from and paying a fair
price to a local beekeeper, especially one who is practising organic methods. In Luxembourg, the 2012-2013 season
resulted in losses of about 30% of the bee colonies. A bee colony costs about 120 euro.
3. Boost the bee population by becoming a beekeeper with
your own hives; and/or
4. Avoid using pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and
miticides.
5. Build an insect hotel. As our open countryside and
woodlands often lack nesting sites for solitary bees, insect
hotels can make up for this loss.
6. Provide habitat in your garden, such as dead tree
branches.
Photo © John PARK
7. Plant a wide variety of native flowers (melliferous plants) so that the bees have a variety of nectar and pollen
sources.
8. Provide a bowl of water from which the bees can drink. Place broken twigs in the bowl so that the bees can climb
out of the water if they fall in.
If you would be interested in visiting beehives and/or would like to know how you can become a beekeeper, please
contact us.