In Hong Kong, more and more people and companies are becoming more aware of the importance of Bees to the ecological system. With the number of bees declining globally every year, harvests which rely on pollination and the diversity of plants are adversely affected.
Hong Kong Raw Honey will be launching “HK Bee Adoption Programme”, through this plan, we will help companies manage beehives, and companies can get raw honey harvest from their hive annually.
Through the programme we hope to achieve a win-win situation which companies could help offering bees a suitable habitat, and increase the number of bees for pollination, making the city a beautiful place and enhance bio-diversity. The programme also enable companies to collect locally produced raw honey, which is perfect for culinary purpose and gift for VIP customers.
From 2006 onwards, a global statistic found that a great number of bees are disappearing, which was known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). If bees are disappeared from the world, not only there will be no more honey to enjoy, and the world may probably face shortage of food due to decline in harvest.
Why are bees disappearing? Professor Marla Spivak from University of Minnesota (USA) has been researching on bees for a number of years, in a public speech in 2014, she mentioned in a public speech about this phenomenon.
- Virus & Parasites
Bee Mite is a type of parasite and is a natural hazard for bees. It affects
the digestive system and immune system of bees and spread disease, which shortens the life of bees.
- Lack of nutrition
Traditional or organic farming uses clover & alfalfa to cover the crops and fertilizes the soil, and clover and alfalfa are very essential for living of bees. Nowadays, farming usually
uses chemical fertilizers which are harmful to bees.
- Pesticides
If pollens or nectars are polluted with chemical pesticides, not only the bee that collect them will risk dying, the bees will bring the chemical back to the hive which may poison the whole hive to death as bees are very vulnerable to chemical pesticides.
- Herbicides
With modern farming more herbicides are used to kill flowering plants, which the flowering plants are sometimes source of food for bees.
