It’s always sad whenever an animal goes extinct, and one creature that could disappear forever in the coming years is the bee. Fortunately, there are plenty of efforts in place to try and protect the various species of these insects, including one in Suffolk, England. There, two farmers have managed to feed one million bees thanks to planting a whopping 81 acres of wildflowers.
Opening Up Their Home
Mark and Paul Hayward have been trying to care for the bee population for four years now. Back in 2016, the brothers decided to turn half of their farmland into wildflowers in the hope of providing the insects with somewhere they could regularly feed. The men are farmers who specialize in raising pigs, but they felt they had enough land to begin catering to other animals.
Embracing Nature
According to Mark, feeding a million bees was apparently always his and Paul’s target. They wanted to reach this point because they were aware of the dangers that modern farming poses to the population. East Anglia, the region they live in, has apparently been particularly negligent of the insects, so they’ve done what they can to embrace them on their farm. That means avoiding things like harmful chemicals, as well as growing several dozen acres of wildflowers.
Hitting Their Goal
The duo discovered that they’d hit their goal after a study investigating insect activity was completed at the end of June. The results showed that as many as one million bees were feeding on the nectar of the wildflowers at any one time. That’s a significant achievement given that many bee populations have already declined by as much as 70%.
Although the brothers might not be able to save the bees by themselves, their work has definitely helped keep the insects from disappearing entirely. If other farms follow in their footsteps, maybe it’s possible to stop them from going extinct altogether.