I plannted a pollinator garden with native plants last year and this summer it was EXPLODING with all sorts of bees! No idea if they're native bees, but some I've never seen before and it brings me so much joy to watch them and the butterflies buzz from flower to flower
I recently was fortunate enough to move into a house in the US and I've been *obsessed* with trying to landscape with majority native plants to support our local ecosystem. It's been so fun to see the plants blooming this spring and summer and seeing all the native species come and hang out. Anyone who's also in the USA should check out the National Wildlife Federation's resources. I've also learned so much from local botanists that are super passionate about native plants 💚
Our garden is always full of insects, since we have a lot of flower bushes and we only mow our lawn when the flowers are mostly wilted. Our neighbors think we are lazy letting the lawn get so long. But we don't care as our garden is the most alive in all the neighborhood and theirs are boring. =) In autumn we collect all the fallen leafes in the wind-protected corners, so small animals and insects have a pace for winter. It's so fun watching the wild hedgehogs roam our garden.
I have a pocket prairie in my community garden plot, and the emergent environmentalist club that I lead at my daughter’s elementary school just started a pollinator garden. I’ll be teaching the kids about all the different native plants that are in our pollinator garden today. I love our native bees and pollinators. Thank you for making such awesome content!
I am trying to be better at eating seasonally this year. So far, I've been great, I'm so excited to eat apples again. It actually makes me more excited to eat these foods when I don't have them all year. Also, planting more pollinating flowers outside.
Hi Gittemary, I am a recent subscriber. I am impressed by your research and your ability to deliver informative videos on very relevant subjects.Thank you for what you are doing. Showing and acting is one of the best ways to make a change. Thank you for also reminding me that.
Love this video! You should talk about the impact of almonds/almond milk production on bees. I work for the USDA and the lab next to mine works with honey bees and focuses on studying the hive beetle. I always have to tell people that while Honey Bees are important...those aren't the main ones we are saving even though we work with them.
Here in the US, in my ecoregion, we have a few endangered bees who rely exclusively on certain plants, because they are "specialists" for it, so I've been planting the native flowers they need! I have a few asters that are covered in bees right now!
We have native cacti that flower and our desert spoon is the bees favy! We're also going to start veggies next spring.🥰 We feed the backyard birds and offer water with rocks so birds and insects can get a drink.✨ I have to be careful around bees as I'm severely allergic but I still care about them. Have hired two beekeepers to take away swarms.🫣 I'd have let them stay if I wasn't so allergic.. The latest ones are on an avocado farm.🥑💚👩🌾
Thank you so much for making this video! I see so many people in the sustainability world who sadly don't know anything about ecology or the biodiversity crisis we are going through. The book "Nature's Best Hope" by Douglas Tallamy is the best book I have ever read on this subject.
I put off watching this video for quite a long time because I use honey quite often and, as I predicted, this video made me change the feel I have around that. Thank you so much Gittemary for your extensive research and concrete tips to make things better :)
Love our local (east coast in US) bees! It is so fun to watch them pollinate our veggies and then take a lil nap on some of the native flowers we've included in our garden. Also very cool to spot all the near perfect circles the leaf cutter bees cut for their nesting materials
One thing I'm a bit confused about is people saying honeybees aren't native -aren't native to where? Because surely they are native to somewhere? It's like people on the internet from america telling someone in england that ivy is a non native invasive plant, when actually it is native there. Andways, I'm off to wikipedia - thanks for the video, though, it brings up a lot to think about!
Thanks you!! Found this video as I’m starting an herbalism business and many in this community use honey and beeswax but as a vegan myself I wanted to check on this topic ❤
Wow this was very eye opening. Was not aware of how many different types of bees there were and that honey bees are actually not native to most areas. Definitely a lot of food for thought and the bit at the end explaining doable things to help the problem was great. Thanks a ton!
I noticed a few bees had drowned in my kids’ pool, so I made a little fountain with rocks so the bees have access to water they can climb in and out of. 🐝
You can also put a raft in your kid's pool to help them getting out. They grip the plank and let their body dry before flyinh again. I personnally use a kid floating plank in my pool (for all those squirrels that birds make them jump in). Some lucky insects are able to catch it.
Thank you for that great information video! I will share it as soon as I ended this comment 😊 I myself don't eat any honey and buy organic and seasonal food when possible.
Thanks for this video, however, as a beekeeper in the US, I can say that clipping queens wings and intentional destruction of hives is incorrect. If a queen isn’t perfect, the workers will kill her and make a new “perfect” queen. Clipping the wings makes her imperfect. Also, a well managed hive produces very little honey the first year, you have to over-winter a hive before it will produce enough honey to harvest (harvesting year 2). This may be different in other parts of the world, but in the US, neither of those practices are used in hobbyist beekeeping or commercial pollination.
I’m sorry but if you search “clipped honeybee queen’s” you will see examples of beekeepers doing just that in the US. Additionally, Gittermary has cited sources to prove her point.
@@helenapflaum6800 As someone who has been a hobbyist beekeeper for 8 years and as a member of local, state and national bee associations, I feel like I can say with some degree of knowledge that I disagree with a Google search. If you, as a beekeeper, clip a queen’s wings you will not prevent your hive from swarming (a natural means of reproduction and a pain in the backside for beekeepers). However, honey bee hives are not a monarchy, so if the other bees in the hive decide to swarm, they make a new queen and kill the old queen. Wing clipping is a old outdated method of swarm prevention. Good hive management by the beekeeper is the best way to prevent a swarm. In the United States, purchasing a new queen will cost $35-50. It makes no sense to then mutilate her only to have your bees replace her. I very much enjoy all of Gittemary’s videos, but this one may have been better if it had included interviews with a couple of local (to her) beekeepers. It also would be an awesome field trip, if she has a spare moment.
I didn't realise honey bees are fine! I don't eat honey but I was contemplating buying some small scale farm's honey. I am moving soon so I am going to grow a biodiversity patch and not use weedkiller (just manual labour). I also hope to start a group campaigning for the maintenance of green spaces.
Saving the bees.... there are more insects out there and all of them are necessary. My Dad (83) is a great gardener and I am allowed to help him. We had some hard discussions 30 years ago, how and why to use pestizides and other not so nice things. Over the years his opinion changed much and he doesn`t want to poison his family any more. His words, not mine. We grow different vegetables and fruits, herbs and some flowers. One side of our house is covered with wild wine and from june till december its full of life. First the insects, then birds and even mice. We have some watering places and the wasps love them. I hear a lot of people talking about saving bees. But if 1 wasp crosses their way, they are freaking out. Most times wasps and hornets are curious like a cat. Or they are searching for water. I think we have to save and protect all insects, except ticks.
Such a great video! In depth but not too long 😊 thank you! I Will definitly try the native plants garden, i tough that just some yellow and purple flowers would bring more pollinators but i wasn't thriving... i Will try your suggestions!
In Italia nel nostro giardino ho piantato fiori per api, coccinelle e farfalle, è stato meraviglioso vedere così tante farfalle di tutti i colori. Per quanto riguarda le api qua gira un po' di tutto anche se cosa mi ha fatto tantissima tenerezza è che questa estate ha piovuto pochissimo, un giorno ho dovuto lavare un tappeto e l'ho steso ad asciugare fuori, si è ricoperto di api che non sono andate via fino a tarda sera...non ho avuto cuore di levare quel tappeto. Da lì ho preparato un vasetto con dei sassi pieno di acqua e ogni giorno lo vuotavano...a volte basta poco... ed era bellissimo vederle nei fiori di zucca e zucchine tutte impolverate di polline ❤️
Honey CAN definitely be sustainable and ethical..... IF you only source from a local small business/hobbyist bee keeper. Honey does contain some special properties such as antibacterial, mild antiviral and mild antifungal. Some specialized honey products are actually used in medical products for applications in the treatment of chronic wounds such as those commonly found in uncontrolled diabetic patients (those who don't keep a tight control of their blood sugar) and those who have poor arterial supply or poor venous blood return in limbs.
@@AnnikaWithAk the antibacterial property is mainly antimicrobial although it is particularly useful for treating difficult to treat chronic wounds but the wounds always needs the wound beds to have the dead/necrotic tissue. Honey is used because it is an anaerobic (without oxygen) environment and the vast majority of bacteria require oxygen.
Actually honeybees and native bees are both dying at an alarming rate. I’m a beekeeper and have a degree in entomology, and these recent trends of trying to demonize beekeepers are just as bad as people who peddle pesticides. If you’ve ever raised honeybees, you will know just how difficult it can be to keep a hive alive through the years with more extreme environmental conditions these days. There’s a lot of talk from people who don’t have experience.
I plannted a pollinator garden with native plants last year and this summer it was EXPLODING with all sorts of bees! No idea if they're native bees, but some I've never seen before and it brings me so much joy to watch them and the butterflies buzz from flower to flower
GOALS honestly 🥹
I recently was fortunate enough to move into a house in the US and I've been *obsessed* with trying to landscape with majority native plants to support our local ecosystem. It's been so fun to see the plants blooming this spring and summer and seeing all the native species come and hang out. Anyone who's also in the USA should check out the National Wildlife Federation's resources. I've also learned so much from local botanists that are super passionate about native plants 💚
This is a goal of mine as well. Whenever I walk my neighborhood, the houses with bee friendly gardens are my favorites.
Our garden is always full of insects, since we have a lot of flower bushes and we only mow our lawn when the flowers are mostly wilted. Our neighbors think we are lazy letting the lawn get so long. But we don't care as our garden is the most alive in all the neighborhood and theirs are boring. =)
In autumn we collect all the fallen leafes in the wind-protected corners, so small animals and insects have a pace for winter. It's so fun watching the wild hedgehogs roam our garden.
I have a pocket prairie in my community garden plot, and the emergent environmentalist club that I lead at my daughter’s elementary school just started a pollinator garden. I’ll be teaching the kids about all the different native plants that are in our pollinator garden today. I love our native bees and pollinators. Thank you for making such awesome content!
that’s so cool! And thank you 💚🌿
I am trying to be better at eating seasonally this year. So far, I've been great, I'm so excited to eat apples again. It actually makes me more excited to eat these foods when I don't have them all year. Also, planting more pollinating flowers outside.
Hi Gittemary, I am a recent subscriber. I am impressed by your research and your ability to deliver informative videos on very relevant subjects.Thank you for what you are doing. Showing and acting is one of the best ways to make a change. Thank you for also reminding me that.
Thank you so much for the support 🌿💚
Love this video! You should talk about the impact of almonds/almond milk production on bees. I work for the USDA and the lab next to mine works with honey bees and focuses on studying the hive beetle. I always have to tell people that while Honey Bees are important...those aren't the main ones we are saving even though we work with them.
Here in the US, in my ecoregion, we have a few endangered bees who rely exclusively on certain plants, because they are "specialists" for it, so I've been planting the native flowers they need! I have a few asters that are covered in bees right now!
that’s amazing !! 💚🌿
It would be wonderful to see an impact video on the impact of exotic plants vs native plants.
uh 👀
We have native cacti that flower and our desert spoon is the bees favy! We're also going to start veggies next spring.🥰 We feed the backyard birds and offer water with rocks so birds and insects can get a drink.✨ I have to be careful around bees as I'm severely allergic but I still care about them. Have hired two beekeepers to take away swarms.🫣 I'd have let them stay if I wasn't so allergic.. The latest ones are on an avocado farm.🥑💚👩🌾
Thank you so much for making this video! I see so many people in the sustainability world who sadly don't know anything about ecology or the biodiversity crisis we are going through. The book "Nature's Best Hope" by Douglas Tallamy is the best book I have ever read on this subject.
I put off watching this video for quite a long time because I use honey quite often and, as I predicted, this video made me change the feel I have around that. Thank you so much Gittemary for your extensive research and concrete tips to make things better :)
I know the feeling all too well, so I think it is fantastic that you watched it anyway 💪🌿
@@Gittemary ☺
Planting tulips this October to bloom in the spring.
Love our local (east coast in US) bees! It is so fun to watch them pollinate our veggies and then take a lil nap on some of the native flowers we've included in our garden. Also very cool to spot all the near perfect circles the leaf cutter bees cut for their nesting materials
One thing I'm a bit confused about is people saying honeybees aren't native -aren't native to where? Because surely they are native to somewhere? It's like people on the internet from america telling someone in england that ivy is a non native invasive plant, when actually it is native there. Andways, I'm off to wikipedia - thanks for the video, though, it brings up a lot to think about!
Thanks you!! Found this video as I’m starting an herbalism business and many in this community use honey and beeswax but as a vegan myself I wanted to check on this topic ❤
Wow this was very eye opening. Was not aware of how many different types of bees there were and that honey bees are actually not native to most areas. Definitely a lot of food for thought and the bit at the end explaining doable things to help the problem was great. Thanks a ton!
I noticed a few bees had drowned in my kids’ pool, so I made a little fountain with rocks so the bees have access to water they can climb in and out of. 🐝
hero 🥹
You can also put a raft in your kid's pool to help them getting out. They grip the plank and let their body dry before flyinh again.
I personnally use a kid floating plank in my pool (for all those squirrels that birds make them jump in). Some lucky insects are able to catch it.
Thank you for that great information video! I will share it as soon as I ended this comment 😊 I myself don't eat any honey and buy organic and seasonal food when possible.
We’ve had a few Bumbles turn up in the front garden (they’re the best kind of bee, in my humble opinion) 🐝
Thanks for this video, however, as a beekeeper in the US, I can say that clipping queens wings and intentional destruction of hives is incorrect. If a queen isn’t perfect, the workers will kill her and make a new “perfect” queen. Clipping the wings makes her imperfect. Also, a well managed hive produces very little honey the first year, you have to over-winter a hive before it will produce enough honey to harvest (harvesting year 2). This may be different in other parts of the world, but in the US, neither of those practices are used in hobbyist beekeeping or commercial pollination.
I’m sorry but if you search “clipped honeybee queen’s” you will see examples of beekeepers doing just that in the US. Additionally, Gittermary has cited sources to prove her point.
@@helenapflaum6800 As someone who has been a hobbyist beekeeper for 8 years and as a member of local, state and national bee associations, I feel like I can say with some degree of knowledge that I disagree with a Google search. If you, as a beekeeper, clip a queen’s wings you will not prevent your hive from swarming (a natural means of reproduction and a pain in the backside for beekeepers). However, honey bee hives are not a monarchy, so if the other bees in the hive decide to swarm, they make a new queen and kill the old queen. Wing clipping is a old outdated method of swarm prevention. Good hive management by the beekeeper is the best way to prevent a swarm. In the United States, purchasing a new queen will cost $35-50. It makes no sense to then mutilate her only to have your bees replace her. I very much enjoy all of Gittemary’s videos, but this one may have been better if it had included interviews with a couple of local (to her) beekeepers. It also would be an awesome field trip, if she has a spare moment.
I didn't realise honey bees are fine! I don't eat honey but I was contemplating buying some small scale farm's honey. I am moving soon so I am going to grow a biodiversity patch and not use weedkiller (just manual labour). I also hope to start a group campaigning for the maintenance of green spaces.
💚🌿😍
Such a great video again, I learned so much from it!!! Also you look especially gorgeous today! ❤🐝
Gittemary, I love your bee puns!
Saving the bees.... there are more insects out there and all of them are necessary. My Dad (83) is a great gardener and I am allowed to help him. We had some hard discussions 30 years ago, how and why to use pestizides and other not so nice things. Over the years his opinion changed much and he doesn`t want to poison his family any more. His words, not mine.
We grow different vegetables and fruits, herbs and some flowers. One side of our house is covered with wild wine and from june till december its full of life. First the insects, then birds and even mice. We have some watering places and the wasps love them.
I hear a lot of people talking about saving bees. But if 1 wasp crosses their way, they are freaking out. Most times wasps and hornets are curious like a cat. Or they are searching for water. I think we have to save and protect all insects, except ticks.
Thank you
Well done
❤❤❤
I try to get most of my produce from a local CSA (community supported agriculture) and the farmers market
Such a great video! In depth but not too long 😊 thank you! I Will definitly try the native plants garden, i tough that just some yellow and purple flowers would bring more pollinators but i wasn't thriving... i Will try your suggestions!
So happy that you liked the video 👌
In Italia nel nostro giardino ho piantato fiori per api, coccinelle e farfalle, è stato meraviglioso vedere così tante farfalle di tutti i colori.
Per quanto riguarda le api qua gira un po' di tutto anche se cosa mi ha fatto tantissima tenerezza è che questa estate ha piovuto pochissimo, un giorno ho dovuto lavare un tappeto e l'ho steso ad asciugare fuori, si è ricoperto di api che non sono andate via fino a tarda sera...non ho avuto cuore di levare quel tappeto. Da lì ho preparato un vasetto con dei sassi pieno di acqua e ogni giorno lo vuotavano...a volte basta poco... ed era bellissimo vederle nei fiori di zucca e zucchine tutte impolverate di polline ❤️
Such an important issue ❤
Great info!
I LOVE the bee puns! ❤
And perhaps replace the honey in your cooking with other alternatives like maple syrup (from Canada 😜✌️)
This one's Beeeeen coming for a while! 🐝
Ooooooh yeah
We get our honey locally. We love it. Great info!!
Honey CAN definitely be sustainable and ethical..... IF you only source from a local small business/hobbyist bee keeper. Honey does contain some special properties such as antibacterial, mild antiviral and mild antifungal. Some specialized honey products are actually used in medical products for applications in the treatment of chronic wounds such as those commonly found in uncontrolled diabetic patients (those who don't keep a tight control of their blood sugar) and those who have poor arterial supply or poor venous blood return in limbs.
I always thought that one would need to consume a lot of honey to make any gains of the antibacterial effect
@@AnnikaWithAk Yes and bees produce honey as their food for the winter. They need it more than we ever will
@@AnnikaWithAk the antibacterial property is mainly antimicrobial although it is particularly useful for treating difficult to treat chronic wounds but the wounds always needs the wound beds to have the dead/necrotic tissue. Honey is used because it is an anaerobic (without oxygen) environment and the vast majority of bacteria require oxygen.
❤
So the Bee Movie was right. 🐝🐝
It was 👀
So, if there's no more bees, at least the Belgians won't starve.
Feels like real housewives of New York
Actually honeybees and native bees are both dying at an alarming rate. I’m a beekeeper and have a degree in entomology, and these recent trends of trying to demonize beekeepers are just as bad as people who peddle pesticides. If you’ve ever raised honeybees, you will know just how difficult it can be to keep a hive alive through the years with more extreme environmental conditions these days.
There’s a lot of talk from people who don’t have experience.
And I eat the honey too 👌
❤🐝
Thanks for sharing
Bumble BEES
👌👌
I love eating honey It is good for you
I also acknowledge that in the video, but that isn’t necessarily the most interesting part about it, in my opinion ☺️
Gitte Mary your content is staring to feel the same/ dull im not trying to be mean but maybe you could switch up or do something more exciting