Celebrate World Honey Bee Day the 3rd Saturday in August

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Happy World Honey Bee Day!

On the 3rd Saturday in August we honor the humble honey bee.

Why? Because without this cute little winged critter, much of the food we eat wouldn’t exist.

The day started in 2009 as Honey Bee Awareness Day and then National Honey Bee Day in the US. Beekeepers petitioned the USDA for a day to honor the hard-working honey bee and the beekeeping profession.

The idea soon spread, and people around the world have started observing the day. Thus World Honey Bee Day. But you’ll still see it referred to as National Honey Bee Day in the US and many US-based websites.

We’re US-based, but we believe the honey bee deserves worldwide recognition. Especially given how important it is to crops around the world. So we’ll be calling it a world day.

The original date for the celebration was August 22. Some still prefer that day, but over time it looks like the 3rd Saturday in August has become the day to celebrate.

A couple of related notes:

• The Beekeeping Association in Slovenia has petitioned the United Nations to declare May 20 as World Bee Day.  (And in December 2017 the UN made it official … May 20, 2018 was the first ever World Bee Day!).
• In Canada, Saskatchewan and British Columbia celebrate a Day of the Honey Bee every year on May 29.

 

Honey Bee Facts and Trivia

The saying “busy as a bee” doesn’t even begin to describe it:

• A honey bee’s wings stroke (flap) at about 200 beats per second.
• This fast wing beat helps her fly up to 15 miles per hour. And up to six miles.
• A honey bee visits up to 100 flowers during a single collection trip.
• For all that work, a honey bee only makes about 1/12th teaspoon of honey during her life (yes, 1/12th teaspoon!)
• A whole hive of bees flies about 90,000 miles to make 1 kg of honey.
• One bee colony may pollinate as many as 300 million flowers in one day.

 

A queen bee rules over a hive of some 20,000 to 60,000 bees. She lives up to 5 years and lays as many as 2500 eggs per day during the summer months.

The queen can lay both fertilized and unfertilized eggs. The fertilized eggs will hatch as females. The larva from unfertilized eggs are male.

The females become worker bees, collecting pollen and doing all other hive work. The males are drones that do nothing but mate.

 

Colony Collapse Disorder

Honey bee populations around the world have been in trouble for quite a few years now. A big part of the problem seems to be mass disappearance of bees from their hives. This has been called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

The weirdest part is the bees just seem to disappear. There are no (or few) dead bee bodies, but no adult bees either. Usually there’s still a queen and immature bees.

Scientists still don’t have a complete answer for what’s causing the problem. But some evidence suggests that the insecticide neonicotinoid (NNI) is at least part of the problem. It’s possible the insecticide affects the bees’ ability to find their way home.

The European Union banned NNIs in 2013.

Other possible culprits are parasites, viruses, and environmental stressors like lack of pollen diversity.

Whatever the cause, we need to stop it. Bees (and especially honey bees) pollinate 70 of our top 100 food crops. And about 90% of the world’s nutrition comes from those 100 crops. So bees are important!

 

World Honey Bee Day Themes

For many years National/World Honey Bee Day had a different theme each year. The themes seem to have been dropped starting with 2018.

Here are the previous themes:

• 2009 – Support Local Beekeeping Become a Locavore!
• 2010 – Local Honey – Food For Bees, You, and the Environment
• 2011 – Building a Sustainable Future, One Flower At a Time
• 2012 – Sustainable Agriculture Starts with Honey Bees
• 2013 – Beekeeping – Ask Me How to Get Started
• 2014 – Sustainable Gardening Begins with Honey Bees
• 2015 – Ban Ignorance – Not Honey Bees
• 2016 – Beekeeping – A Hobby With A Sweet Taste!
• 2017 – For A Natural High: Smoke Some Bees!

 

Scroll down for some ideas on celebrating this unofficially sweet and buzzy holiday.

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Celebrating World Honey Bee Day

See if there’s a Honey Bee Day event near you. Depending on the event, you may learn about bees and beekeeping, and maybe even be able to buy honey!

Take a look around your yard and see if there’s any plants honey bees like. If not (or not many), consider planting some:

• Lavender
• Marjoram
• Borage
• Crocus
• Bee balm
• Snapdragon
• Zinnia
• Aster

 

You can learn more about how to create a bee haven in your yard from the US Fish & Wildlife Service.

Once you have your bee-friendly garden flowering, you can take pictures of the bees in all their bee-y glory! Those little yellow and black bodies just pop against purple or pink flowers.

Use honey in your cooking  for the day (and every day!):

• Granola for breakfast.
• Or Whole Grain Waffles With Cherry Sauce (the honey’s in the cherry sauce).
• Or maybe you’d prefer Fresh Fruit with Honey Vanilla Yogurt
• Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches with Honey Mustard for lunch.
• Sticky Honey-Soy Chicken Wings for dinner.
• Or maybe Honey-Soy Broiled Salmon is more your style.
• Serve Honey-Roasted Carrots on the side.
• Try Honey Flan for dessert.
• Or go with Riesling Baked Pears instead.

 

Dates for Future World Honey Bee Day Celebrations

The date of the 3rd Saturday in August changes every year. So to be sure you don’t miss one, here’s the dates for the next few years:

• 2019 – Saturday, August 17
• 2020 – Saturday, August 15
• 2021 – Saturday, August 21
• 2022 – Saturday, August 20
• 2023 – Saturday, August 19
• 2024 – Saturday, August 17
• 2025 – Saturday, August 16
• 2026 – Saturday, August 15
• 2027 – Saturday, August 21
• 2028 – Saturday, August 19
• 2029 – Saturday, August 18

 

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