Do you ever sit back and think about what that tiny furry little creature does for us and the planet?

We should be in no doubt that bees are some of the hardest working and important creatures on earth.

We owe a lot to this amazing, yet still often under-appreciated, little animal.

Around the world, there are over 25,000 different types of bee species. This huge number is divided into over 4,000 different types of bees, which can be further divided into the nine families of bees.

But why are bees so important?

Bees are crucial for pollination; the word we use for how plants reproduce.

Simply put, pollination is when the male part of the flower (called the stamen) meets the female part of another flower (the pistil).

Plants cannot walk around to do this themselves but without this process, a plant’s seed and fruit would not be produced. While some plants can pollinate themselves or rely on the wind to do it, many plants rely on animals to assist with this pollination process and bees are an especially important part of that process.

It’s no doubt that when people start to think about why bees are important, being pollinators is the first thing many people think of.

And with good reason!

Bees are one of the most effective pollinators in the world. Part of this is because bees often tend to focus on pollinating one species of plant at a time. Because they often visit one type of flower for a whole outing a much higher level of pollination is achieved overall, as all the plants are getting a more even distribution of pollen from the same species.

Thanks for the crash course in science, guys. What does pollination have to do with me?

The short answer – everything.

Because bees and other pollinators are responsible for the pollination of nearly three quarters of the plants that produce 90% of the world’s food. In fact, a third of the world’s food production depends on bees.

That means every third spoonful of food we consume depends on pollination – and the bees.

Bees also tell us important information about the state of the environment. Their work is vital for the preservation of ecological balance and biodiversity in nature.

The presence, absence or quantity of bees informs us when something isn’t right with our eco-system and most importantly, when action is needed. Remember, there is no Planet Bee.

Apart from making the world go round the bi-products of bees are vast. Here are some of the amazing products produced by our furry friends:

Honey – a sweetener rich in bioactive substances.

It’s an excellent nutrient and calmative. Owing to its antibacterial and antioxidant properties, it is widely used in folk medicine. One honey we would definitely recommend is the hand poured Manuka Honey from our great friends at GoodFor. It’s a warm amber colour that hosts a thicker consistency than you may be used to and carries a distinctive toffee flavour with a fragrant, fruity finish. The thing we love about this honey is that rather than transporting the honey frames back to a facility, it’s extracted onsite. The eco-friendly method scrapes honey and pollen from the frame, meaning each jar of honey is unpasteurised but has a higher pollen count.

Another honey we highly recommend is the Master Bee Keeper Range from BioHoney. This RAW honey is single batch. It’s never blended, always a bit different. Because each batch is unique, you know where your honey has been produced and the name of the Master Beekeepers responsible.

 

BioHoney also offer the amazing Raw Clover Honeycomb. This Master Beekeepers’ favourite honey is RAW, straight from the hive. This means the bare minimum of processing needed to extract honey out of the comb and into glass jars. They don’t heat RAW honey beyond natural hive temperatures either. Neither is it creamed. This means their honey retains its healthy enzymes and the full flavour Master Beekeepers love. Yummo!

Skincare

There are so many amazing properties from honey and in particular organic Manuka honey. It provides amazing healing properties and is world renowned for its powerful antibacterial properties. It also helps hydrate, repair and calm the skin.

There are also powerful proteins found in Bee Venom which increase blood circulation and aid skin cell renewal.

 Bee Venom gently stimulates facial tissue to smooth and firm skin, reducing fine lines and wrinkles. BioHoney product one of the crème de la crème with their BioHoney Bee Venom Mask. Aside from the amazing properties of the honey it also includes NZ Tree Fern. A natural skin lifter, this extract is rich in polysaccharides that form an elastic, resistant and continuous lifting effect which works instantaneously. The skin’s appearance is improved as this extract also reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. The organic oils in this product include Apricot oil, Avocado oil, Rosehip oil, Evening Primrose oil and Lavender and Manuka essential oils to penetrate the skin, soothe and replenish.

 Another great product worth mentioning is the Ao Skincare 6000x Elemental Sunscreen from Biddy+May which contains Manuka Honey to help nourish and deeply moisturise skin while working on rapid tissue repair. Formulated without Parabens, Sulfates, Mineral Oil & EDTA.

Bee-liss ;)

Food Wraps

I don’t know about you, but I gave up using GladWrap years ago. I always felt a pang of guilt when using this soft plastic that ends up on the landfill and no sooner had I become totally addicted to the Lily Bee Wraps. What a cool invention!

LilyBee Wrap was born from a desire to create an easy, eco-friendly food wrap option that both worked well,  without sacrificing beauty. They couldn’t bear using single use plastic so started looking for alternatives.  

After trying just beeswax and experimenting with a few recipes online that didn't really work they decided to create their own eco-friendly food wrap. These beeswax wraps are made in New Zealand with the highest quality ingredients, 100% cotton, locally and sustainable sourced beeswax, organic coconut oil and tree resin. All of our their packaging is PEFC (Sustainable Forestry) certified, and their fabric and printing is certified by the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS).

 

Of course the list goes on with the uses of the bi-products from these incredible little creatures. There’s plenty to create a buzz about. No pun intended.

These are just a few to remind you of some of our daily products we use that make a difference to the way we live. All from these furry little flying machines!