A close relationship between human beings and bees

 

Some people think that bees can be annoying because they can sting, but in fact, bees are one of the species that are really close to human beings. This is not only for their honey but also because of pollination; bees pollinate a third of the food we eat daily.

Recently, some scientists have been researching a fairly new phenomenon; bees leaving their hives and not returning. Only a few worker-bees and the queen remain, but often the colony is too small to survive. Scientists think this phenomenon is due to over-exploitation, a lack of diversity in agriculture, pesticides we use on our crops, and plagues within the colonies that make the bees suddenly disappear.

According to a report, people first discovered this phenomenon called 'Colony Collapse Disorder' (CCD) in the United States. Some beekeepers said they were missing an amount as high as 95% of their bees. In addition, the beekeeping business in the U.S. West Coast has lost about 60% of its bees, while 70% of the bees disappeared in the East Coast.

Today, the 'CCD' phenomenon has spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. In Spain, there are reports of thousands of bees missing. In Switzerland, about 40% of the bees have disappeared or died.

Now, the politicians do not ascribe a lot importance to the beekeeping industry and the majority of people only think of honey and other related products when they think about bees. They forget the original ecological characteristics of bee pollination, although this is not only a very important step for our fruit-, vegetable- and nut industry, cotton plants also need to be pollinated.

We need to look after our close relationship with bees in order to keep on eating the same things as we eat right now. ‘If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.’ A quote by Albert Einstein from Organic Principle.

Logo for redesigned bee-suit

For the Technonatures course the Design& Environment students got a little 'Wildlife corridor' on Goldsmith's ground. Each of the groups can design a master plan for this stretch of land.
 First, there already are two bee-hives to be found there, and although there is an existing plan to educate adults, we want to educate kids as well, so we'll be setting up a little education-program for them.
 Also, we'll focus on the piece of land itself; do we want to keep it the way it is? Or do we want to expand the beekeeping there? Are we going to use the ground to plant bee-friendly plants?
 Final, we are going to redesign the bee-suit, made to be easy to wear, easy to put on and fun to wear.


We designed a logo for the bee-suits, the suit you see here is not our design;

Beekeeping Suits

Most of the bee-suits you'll find are white, some say this is mainly to not be mistaken for a predator (the fur of a bear is dark).  In forums you will find discussions about the color of the suits: 'do they really need to be white?' Some people say that you won't distract the bees when you're wearing white, others say that it doesn't matter and that 'the bees will be bees', and even black shouldn't be a problem. We will do some more research on the color but for now, the most important aspects of the suits are:

- Ventilation; the suit needs to be comfortable, cool, light and airy.
- Vision; it's important to see what you're doing so the hood needs to be practical.
- Though material; the stinger shouldn't get through the fabric. The material needs to be machine-washable as well, the stingers give of an alarming pheromone, so as long they're in your suit, they will attract aggressive bees. The hood needs to be UV- resistant.
- Pockets for the tools would be nice.
- All the entrances into the suit (and your body) should be closed, so no bee can enter it!

Some say that washing your suit with vinegar helps to keep the bees away.  

Here are some pictures of our research on the suits.