The importance of bees and the hotels that can save them

We read more and more often on the internet and in the newspapers that bees are in danger and that the preservation of this species is essential to our planet. But why bees are critical for us and for all ecosystems? And above all, what are the possible solutions? Let’s find out the bees world and the first adopted solutions, including the innovative hotels that designers and researchers are creating to save them!

In recent years we are witnessing a great death toll of bees, caused by intensive farming, pesticides and climate change. In Europe, the hives are halved and in many countries around the world the bees continue to die, as when, you may recall, in August 2016, in South Carolina, millions of bees have died after a massive spraying of insecticide used for the control of mosquitoes.

We continue to destroy the environment and nature, as if we did not know how much can be harmful, if not catastrophic. All nature is alive thanks to a fragile equilibrium, each species is essential for biodiversity. But these insects are not like the other endangered species, our future depends directly on their existence.

According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), 71 of the 100 most important crops reproduce through pollination. It is thanks to bees that we can eat berries, peaches, apples, tomatoes, zucchini and many other products of the earth. If today we still think that bees only make honey, we’re so wrong. Without them, agriculture as we know it would not exist, but that’s not all. These so special insects also pollinate crops that produce animal feed, and also cotton, so their disappearance also impacts on breeding and on the textile industry. And if we think of all the industries that use agricultural products, we can begin to understand how the world we live in is based on the work of bees.

If the situation is certainly dramatic, it does not mean it is hopeless. Slowly awareness is raising among people and big businesses, and so now we are looking for new solutions. There are those who start from Chinese primary schools (China is the first country in the world for production of honey and beekeeping, but in recent years bees are disappearing) to sensitize future generations to the importance of this species and of beekeeper’s role. Some people try to build the first highway in the world for bees, some invests in urban beekeeping and there are those who try to take their place doing their work, in the latter case without much success. A farmer manages to pollinate up to 10 trees per day, while a hive full visit 225 000 flowers in 24 hours.

Among the many solutions, we felt in love with the Bee Hotels, that allow the insects to survive and multiply, protecting them from excessive cold and pollution. Thus the Beedapest The Grand Hotel, hotel for bees inspired by Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. The designers of Pop Tart Works aimed at creative recycling of cardboard to create a hotel for a bee colony. Some students of the University of Buffalo have created a Bee Hotel, Elevator B, which looks like a skyscraper with an excellent insulation system.