#Save wild bees

[beesfacts]

Bee fact #4

Fun face, bumble bee queens are single mothers when they first make their hives. They have to carry their eggs and regulate their temperature so the eggs don't die. They have to do all this while gathering supplies to make their hives!

[weevil-mastermind]

"#Save the Birds!"

Imagine if there was a popular movement to "save the birds" but the only birds people knew about were chickens and maybe geese. So everyone proposes doing things like raising chickens in your backyard to save the birds.

There IS a strange disease affecting chickens that is a major threat to the poultry industry. It's just that at the same time there are devastating declines in other birds that no one is paying attention to.

Now imagine that you are one of the few people who knows that other birds exist. You have nothing against chickens. It's just that there are so many wild birds that need our help too. Everyone you meet is surprised when you inform them about these other birds.

All this time, the other birds can be seen right outside their windows. It's just that few people take the time to stop and notice them.

This is what "Save the bees" is like.

[reasonsforhope]

"Next Monday [6/17/24] is the start of National Pollinator Awareness Week, and one Colorado advocacy group is hosting a flower planting drive to rewild Colorado’s meadows, gardens, and just maybe, its children too.

Created by constitutional amendment in 1992, Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) is a state-funded independent board that invests a portion of Colorado Lottery proceeds to help preserve and enhance the state’s parks, trails, wildlife, rivers, and open spaces.

This year, GOCO’s offshoot Generation Wild is distributing over 100,000 free packets of wildflower seeds to collection points at museums, Denver Parks and Rec. offices, and libraries all over the state to encourage kids and families to plant the seeds in their backyards.

The Save the Bees! initiative aims to make the state more beautiful, more ecologically diverse, and more friendly to pollinators.

According to a new report from the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, 20% of Colorado’s bumblebees are now at risk of extinction. Even in a small area like a backyard, planting wildflowers can make a positive impact on the local ecosystem and provide native bees with a healthy place to live.

“The Western Bumblebee population has declined in Colorado by 72%, and we’re calling on kids across Colorado to ‘bee’ the change,” said GOCO Executive Director Jackie Miller.

Named after Generation Wild’s official mascot “Wilder,” the Wilderflower Seed Mix was developed in partnership with Applewood Seed Co. and packets are now available for pickup at designated partner sites including more than 80 Little Free Library boxes.

By distributing 100,000 Wilderflower packets, Generation Wild is providing more than 56 million seeds for planting in every nook and cranny of the state. All seeds are regionally-native to Colorado, which is important for sustaining the living landscape of bees, birds, and other animals.

Additionally, by using flower species adapted to the Mile High climate, landscapers and gardeners need to use less water than if they were tending non-native plants.

“Applewood Seed Co. was excited to jump in and help Generation Wild identify a seed mix that is native to the Colorado region and the American West, containing a diversity of flower species to attract and support Colorado’s pollinator populations,” stated Norm Poppe, CEO of Applewood Seed Co. “We hope efforts like this continue to educate the public on pollinator conservation and the need to protect our native bees and butterflies.”

Concluding her statement Miller firmly stated that children grow up better outside, and if you or a parent you know agree with her, all the information on how to participate in Save the Bees! can be found here on their website, including a map showing all the local pickup points for the Wilderflower Seed Packets."

-via Good News Network, June 13, 2024

[apollolabsworld]

this has been my holdback photo for a couple of weeks. the lighting was perfect, this was a photo i was so happy to capture!

[theminecraftbee]

[writing found in a floating temple belonging to an unknown player on a distant server. while there were no signs of life in the temple, there were signs of life in the caves below it, including some rusted armor sets, complicated machinery overgrown by birch saplings, and a small robot with a tag on it that read “lil buddy” and a battery clutched in one of its claws. despite all attempts, researchers could not find the portal that is normally found by those players taken in by the vault gods, though given the presence of an altar, it is certainly nearby, and the area has been quarantined until that portal’s location can be ascertained.]

I asked Idona to save me the other day.

It feels fickle; it feels like the sort of thing I only said because that’s what one ought to say to gods, when they want something from them. “Save me, Idona.”

They did no such thing, but I didn’t expect them to. I knew them when they still demanded blood sacrifice; now that they merely demand challengers at their altar instead of anything so obvious as the blood of their enemies, it can be easy to forget how malicious they had once seemed. It’s easy to forget that asking things of them had once ended poorly.

Perhaps that’s the Paradox that they are showing me; I had asked Idona to save me because within that Paradox, they would build a mine. That a blood god now offers mines and blacksmiths to me instead, in a place I can design to access myself—well, it’s easy to forget how I once knew them.

It’s easy to forget how often their challenges killed me once, too, back before I knew the trick to finish them quickly. The Gods had seemed just as cruel and capricious as always when I’d simply failed to find enough of the chests they’d laid out and they punished me by causing my health to steadily fade away.

That rarely happens anymore.

You see, yesterday, I killed a wither with a single hit from my javelin and a single hit from my sword. As I flew home, a nether star clutched in my feelers, I felt very little. It was hardly a challenge compared to the vaults; I don’t know why I’d expected more.

The gods have challenged me; I have risen to that challenge. I sweep through vaults, their minders at the side of my head, until I find their altar to bow at, find their altar to make promises of being the challenger they’re looking for at. I know the tricks to find my way around a vault, after all. I spend more time there than the overworld.

I wonder if I’m becoming arrogant, actually.

Even without my armor or sword, I’m too strong for the endermen I used to accidentally release from my farms. I hit them once and they die; if the punch doesn’t work, a javelin or a cast spell will. With the endermen, it’s fine.

With my parrots or dogs—

I have Lil Buddy now. He can’t die because I’m not meant for the overworld anymore, I don’t think.

I wonder if that, too, is the Paradox. The gods are gifting me unlimited power. I step into a vault I have designed myself, under their guidance, and I pull untold riches from it every time. The gods are gifting me strength, which I can call from an altar at any time. No threat can step near me without either being poisoned or scratched by the strength of my blade.

But I have not had a pet that is not made of metal in—I don’t know how to count days any longer. Time passes strangely inside of vaults. It is Wendarr’s trickery. I simply know I haven’t since I was level 70, and that feels like ages ago.

That’s about when I realized perhaps I am untouchable to that which I want, too.

Maybe I should ask Idona to save me for a reason that was not me, desperately trying to seek out their altar for jewels I hardly need these days; maybe I should ask Idona to save me from sacrificing more than I can give.

I know them, though. I’ve known them since they’ve demanded blood.

They won’t.

And one day, I will give them everything, and I will thank them for it. The one god that even they worship above all others, after all, is greed, and that is an altar I cannot simply stop going to.

[axololtls]

[sillyforestelf]

Geranium

Did you know that geraniums attract pollinators?

Bloom from spring to fall, and are easy to grow? They come from South Africa, so they are adapted to going without water for periods of time, making them easy and rewarding flowers to add to your garden to attract and feed the pollinators we so desperately need! #savethebees

Follow if you're a nature lover 🌸

Original photograph taken by me

[existential-mushroom-blog]

we drew emily from stardew valley last night :)). it was a quick drawing but i really like how it turned out none-the-less!

☆★☆★☆★☆

"I never told you this… but when you first moved here I had a dream about you. I knew right then that our life-paths would intertwine.” -emily, in stardew valley ☆★☆★☆★☆

what do you think? which character should we draw next?

-?, iris

☆★☆★☆★☆

[laorelcreates]

“Meadow Gold” 💛🌼🐝(Available in my shop)

[keekee2002]

Yet another photo dump of adventure dates my boy and I went on! 🥰☺️

This trip was extra special because we invited his sister. We had a whole other place in mind, we’d drove an hour and a half but it didn’t work out so we found this place! TOTALLY WORTH IT! We had way more fun here than we would’ve at the other place. Well definitely try the original place again another day but till then, here were my finds!

We found sound BEAUTIFUL mushrooms! The purple and pink ones! 😱😱 it was absolutely stunning to see it in person!

[starlitdecember]

beauty is the bee

shot on Fujifilm xt-30 ii, 35mm - August 13th, 2023

[maryjanemeows]

Buzz buzz baby 🐝

[swimminginlakes]

The beauty that is spring ✨

[a-place-for-growth]

Just needed to post this quick reminder because recently there is a lot of the common 'honey is good for nature' misinformation going 'round again, even on blogs I usually like a lot for being a voice of critical thinking.

While it is true that we need to help wild bees and insects in general, it is a widespread lie that beekeeping actually helps with the issue of biodiversity. Especially in urban areas, managed and introduced bees have become a significant threat to wild pollinators.

Since I once believed the same comfortable lies before I educated myself on the matter, I wanted to provide some links to scientific data I wish I had read earlier to make my decisions based on those and not on the opinions of people who benefit from beekeeping. If you are interested, have a look and make your own decisions.

[cryptid-kratt-kid]

You know what im genuinely surprised we don't have an episode about? Bees! Not even specifically honeybees! There are over 20,000 species of bees and I have been OBSESSED with them!

Did you know that 75% of wild bee species are ground nesters? That all worker honeybees are female? Or that African honeybees are actually hybrids? that there's a bee called the bumblebee-mimic digger bee that makes little sandcastles as nests? That there's bees that litterally air drop their eggs into the nests of other bees? That the majority of bees have special indents in their legs called "pollen baskets" that they use to carry little balls of pollen around while they fly?

I know they made a cameo in the flight of the polinators, and that the bros almost got vibe checked by them in the honey badger episode, but bees seriously deserve an entire episode dedicated to them specifically! Bees are one of the most interesting insects on the planet!

[ivebeensetonfire]

I’m dedicating my backyard this year to wild growth. Not cutting it except a path to the back gate to see what grows and hopefully some pollinators. Got a ton of little blue/violet buds coming up and it’s so pretty. Wish I had done this earlier