Drenthe beekeepers of the Dutch Beekeepers Association will give a look inside the hive this weekend. During the National Open Beekeeping Days, anyone interested in honey and the bees that make it can come along for a chat about the buzzing insects.
The Dutch bee population is not doing very well yet. The number of bees in our country has fallen sharply in recent decades. This is mainly due to urbanization, the strict mowing policy and pesticides of intensive agriculture.
Information is therefore important, according to chairman Wim de Kleine of the bee association from Emmen. His fellow beekeepers are ready in the bee park in Emmermeer to tell interested parties everything about the importance of bees for not only nature, but also humans.
“Bees are essential for our food supply. They pollinate our crops and ensure that they can reproduce,” says De Kleine. As far as he is concerned, not enough attention can be paid to the situation in which the bee in particular has found itself. In the summer there are a million honeybees flying around that come from the hives in Emmermeer, but the beekeepers’ association is still concerned.
De Kleine: “Things are going quite well now, but you see that entire bee colonies sometimes die, especially in winter. They succumb to a lack of food or toxins from agriculture that they had already ingested earlier in the year. You can You can tell by the amount of honey a colony produces how the bee is doing. Here in Emmen we get about ten kilograms of honey per season from a hive, while that can be as much as sixty kilograms.”
There are bright spots for the bees and, according to the Emmer chairman, they mainly arise from awareness. The national government wants to see an end to the decline in the number of bees by 2030. A number of harmful insecticides are or are already banned.
Municipalities, provinces and water boards were also instructed to pay extra attention to improving the living environment of bees and other pollinators when drawing up nature policy. In addition, there are also farmers who stop using certain pesticides and pay attention to growing bee and butterfly-friendly flowers when working their land.
A good start, according to De Kleine, but there is still more work to be done. “We just need the bees. On days like today, we hope to get that message across to the wider public.”