are becoming concerned with the welfare of bees,
it is a world wide happening, at the Hitokotonushi Shrine, in Japan’s Ibaraki prefecture, which was founded in the year 809, the local bees are really well looked after, I am not sure who took the photographs I am guessing the shrine,
during the summer months, Hitokotonushi Shrine has a tradition of transforming a section of their water basins, intended for human visitors, and dedicating them to our pollinating friends,
bees don’t only drink the water but they also use it to regulate the temperature of the hive, feed their young, as well as dilute stored honey. And bees can sometimes drown when searching for water so the shrines has spent a good deal of time and consideration on the design of their bee oasis, which includes moss and several other hard surfaces to climb on,
Hitokotonushi Shrine is located roughly a 45 min drive from central Tokyo and is easily accessible if you have a car, here is the exact location, I have to say that we noticed when visiting the lavender this year, the almost total lack of bees, in fact most insects seem to have disappeared, I so seldom see for instance butterflies, as a kid they were everywhere, also thinking back to those days after every journey into the country side, Dad's car windscreen would be covered with dead insects, nowadays hardly any at all after we have been out, it really does not look good for insects I have to say.
Dear Stanley and Diana
ReplyDeleteWhen we lived in central Florida we noted little insect or 🐝 bee activity around the area. With our move to rural Texas we are delighted to report normal insect and bee activity like 50 years ago in rural Kansas where I was born. The back of our home hangs over a large canyon that has no roads, improvements or human visitors. It is an oasis for nature without the encroachment of humanity. When we first moved in we were thrilled to see many fireflies (lightning bugs) once the sun set. We now enjoy a huge population of different types of birds and of course they eat the insects so we were lucky to find a lot for our home on the edge of this nature oasis. This canyon has many cliffs and natural barriers to prevent ever being developed so at least there are some pristine rural areas still untouched. We are very careful to not invade or disturb our canyon but do so enjoy all the activity. Given this environment we now understand why so many animals and deer find it there home. The USA Western slope to the Pacific coast has huge land mass and a lot of natural barriers to people. So still a lot of open natural lands, many in National Forest areas. This helps protect the future existence of all nature’s creatures except mankind. Overpopulation of the world seems to be root cause for many of today’s problems including reduction of the 🐝 bee population. Let’s hope over time this becomes more formally addressed and corrected.
Regards
John and Alley
Dear John and Alley, you have found a piece of heaven on earth, all of the wildlife, insects, deer and birds, and so much of it not being able to be developed, over here in the UK we have a number of National Parks, but very few true untouched areas, the UK is too small and there are to many of us! I would dearly love to have the wildlife you have at the backdoor, I have to say yesterday at the Superbloom, (I have not posted it as yet as I am still typing it) three were so many bees, and considering we were virtually in the center if London it was nice to see so many of them, best regards, Stan and Diana.
ReplyDelete