Honey Bees Persuasive Speech

The honey bee population is going down, and while most people think it doesn't really matter or just don’t notice it, they should because it is a very big problem. I think the other people should try and change that. If bees die then it will not be good, at all. In this persuasive piece of writing, I will be trying to make people rethink about the bee population, and what it could potentially do to the human race.

Since the late 1990s, beekeepers around the world have observed the mysterious and sudden disappearance of bees, and report unusually high rates of decline in honeybee colonies. Bees do more than just make honey! Bee transfer pollen and seeds from one flower to another, fertilizing the plant so it can grow and produce food. Cross-pollination helps at least 30 percent of the world's crops and 90% affects our food. The sweet fruits humans eat such as, strawberries, mangoes, grapes, apples, and bananas would not be the same taste wise as they are now. We simply couldn’t live in the same world if it weren’t for the bees.

Pollinating flowers and contributing to the beautification of the planet’s landscapes may be the bees’ perhaps simplest and least economically important actions, but it’s certainly its most aesthetically pleasing one.

Bee's need a queen in order to survive. While there are thousands of worker bees per successful hive, the queen, lays the eggs and the thousands of bees worship her; August teaches Lily, “'...they all depend on her to keep [the system] going…

Bees pollinating crops produce every third mouthful of food we eat. Bees contribute to thirty- five Percent of global food production, 87 of the leading 115 food crops are dependent on animal pollinators, including bees. (The United States White House, 2014). Without bees pollinating plants, there would not be very many fruits or vegetables to eat, Bees transfer pollen between the male and female parts, allowing plants to grow seeds and fruit. In the last decade scientist and beekeepers have observed remarkable decline of bees, in the US alone 30% of the national bee population has disappeared and nearly a third of all bee colonies in the U.S. have

The bee population is on a rapid decline, we must do something to help prevent them from undergoing extinction. Bee populations aren't just decreasing in certain regions, the population is decreasing in majority of the world. Heavy losses have been reported by beekeepers from various different countries like; Britain, Spain, Poland, Greece, Croatia, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Portugal. (“Buzz Kill”) This shows that a decline in the bee populations are not only is it happening in the United States, but that it is also happening all over Europe because multiple countries are experiencing heavy bee losses. Although there are very detrimental losses in majority of the world, the US has also experienced huge losses. “Losses reached 60% in

Bees provide us with pollination services for our agricultural crops. “Bees are the most important pollinators of our fruits and vegetables and flowers and crops like alfalfa hay that we feed our farm animals.” (Spivak) We rely on them so much that more than one-third of the world’s crop production is dependent on bee pollination. Without bees we wouldn’t have specialty crops like: asparagus, cantaloupes, cucumbers, pumpkins, cherries and blueberries. We also rely on the bee’s honey, “Made by bees regurgitating nectar and passing it back and forth in their mouths to one another before depositing and sealing it in a honeycomb, it’s intended use is for the bee’s winter food stores.” (Tucker) Honey is also valued in our economy, “Humans are quite fond of this amber liquid as well- the 2013 honey crop was valued at $317.1 million.” (Tucker) We need bees for their economic value just as much as we need their pollination for our crops. Honey

All over the world bees have slowly begun to die out. Specifically, honey bees have begun

America’s bees are slowly beginning to suffer. The number of hives had been at 6 million during World War 2, and then decreased to 2.6 million in 2006, then fell below 2 million for the first time in memory (Jacobsen). From the very start honey bees have been an important factor in our agriculture. They serve as a nutrition source for flowers in order for the flowers to grow and make the crops that are needed. Honey bees had originally originated in Africa and when they came into higher northern latitudes they became to evolve into large colony sizes and build up excessive stores of honey to survive the cold winter (Kritsky). When Spring comes and bees begin to pollinate flowers, people tend to get in the way of the process so as a result bees will hurt the human. However, not all bees can sting. Female worker bees are the main ones that sting others (Kritsky). They serve as a line of defense so therefore will act as nature has taught them. For example, when my brother was younger, he went out into the backyard to search for some frogs since it had just rained the night before. While in the searching process he went under our deck that we had and started scrounging around for them. After awhile we suddenly hear a loud high pitched noise and it’s him running and crying from the bees that had just stung him. There were a bundle of flowers under the deck and he must have not realized that they were there considering his main focus was to capture the frogs.

Bees are beneficial to our environment. They help with pollination of crops, flowers, orchards as well as yielding honey (Ryde, 7). Because of these benefits, the beekeeper learns about the surrounding environment, land, and community, for which he can help. Pollination yields beautiful wildflowers, healthy crops, fruits and vegetables (Ryde, 7).

Bees have existed for about 100 million years, and they have played an important role in the pollination of plants. A long time ago, pollination was crucial to the balance of the food chain. Without it there would have been no food for the herbivores and they would have become extinct; so no food for the meat eaters. They have been doing their job for millions of years, but recently scientists have observed problems within the colonies which could have negative effects with in our ecosystem.

Bees are vital to farmers and ranchers because they’re necessary to keep their crops reproducing.

A bee is an insect that lives in every part of the world except the North and South Poles. Bees are one of the most useful of all insects. There are 20,000 species of bees in the world (154, B: Bees). Bees get their food from flowers through pollen and nectar. They collect tiny grains of pollen and nectar from flower blossoms. Sticky nectar gets attached to the tiny hairs that cover their bodies and is distributed when bees travel from flower collecting nectar (201, B: Bees). Bees make their honey from nectar and use both honey and pollen as food. When bees are collecting nectar for food, they spread pollen from flower to flower. The process of pollination allows plants to reproduce as well as feeds the bees. Bees have become completely dependent on flowers for food. Flowers, in turn, rely heavily on bees to

Honeybees are at risk and we can save them, but we are to blame for this problem. Since we started this problem we have to stop it. Honeybees have special features just like you, but their features are different than yours in many ways. More bees have been dying off sooner each year since the winters of 2006-2007. This is a big problem but we can stop it before it gets worse. If you want to save the honeybees than we need to work together and come up with solutions to save them. ¨Every year there seems to be a different challenge for bees.¨(Manning 4)

To bee or not to bee is a question that must be asked to understand some vital elements to the very existence of our world. Bees are widely known for their effective method of pollinating not only flowers, but plants and crops as well. Although there are many other types of pollinating insects and wind, all of which acts as natural pollinators in the world we live in, none can compare to the priceless methods of the bees. Pollination through the bees occurs when they seek out the nectar and pollen that is found in plants, and since their hairs, located all over their bodies, act as attractants to pollen, this results in the spread of pollen as they move from flower to flower, in which some of the pollen they have gathered gets released. Even though