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Feel the buzz this National Honey Bee Day!
By Shane Addinall Aug 15, 2020Honey bees are an extremely important insect when it comes to the maintaining of a natural, healthy ecosystem. Join us in celebrating the life of the bee and play several slots that honour the work of these buzzing bugs.Every third Saturday in August is known as National Honey Bee Day. It was first celebrated in 2009, when the U.S Secretary of Agriculture, Thomas J. Vilsek, declared it a National Day.
It was originally meant for the beekeeping industry, but 12 years have passed and it has since turned into an international day of awareness and celebration around the world.
Spreading awareness about bees and their worth is important, especially when given the fact that they are so vital to the ongoing preservation of life on earth. Their buzzy work ethic ensures that we are all fed and sustained in more ways than one.
There are many different subspecies of bees found in the world today. The most commonly encountered one is the honey bee. These little insects are not only found in gardens around the world, but have become icons in so many cartoon TV shows, stories, and games.
The Birds and the Bees
Honey bees are social animals that operate in a caste system. The females are generally higher ranked than male bees, with the queen bee being the matriarchal leader of the swarm. These swarms can consist of anywhere between a few hundred bees to 10,000 individuals. The worker bees that you usually encounter in the garden, collecting pollen from flowers, are females.
Did you know? - Only female bees have stingers! These are used to deter threats to the colony, injecting venom into the animal or person, to thwart their actions.
Male bees, known as drones, are produced from unfertilised eggs, which means they have no father.
Their genetic chromosomal make-up is good for one thing – breeding. They have one task; they must find a queen bee and mate with her. This action inevitably kills the male, as all the blood in his body rushes to his head, causing him to lose complete control of his body. He will then fall from the queen in the sky, leaving behind his endophallus (mating organ).
The result of this fertilization will produce female bees which will carry 100% of his genetics and 50% of the queen’s genetics.
History of the Bees-ness
While scientists cannot trace the routes of honey bees exactly, it is understood that most of the known bee species have come from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
Evolutionary scientists believe that bees evolved from their earlier ancestors – wasps. While they were once predatory in nature, it is believed that the insect slowly became accustomed to eating insects enveloped in pollen and nectars, eventually changing their taste and diet preference accordingly in favour of sweeter rather than meatier substances.
Despite these theories, what we do know for sure is that beekeeping is over 15,000 years old. Documented efforts to domesticate bees can be traced back as far as ancient Egypt (4,500 years ago). In fact, jars of honey were found in King Tutankhamun’s tomb. This shows that the rich liquid gold was associated with royalty with the ancients.
Quick Fact: Although humans come into contact with honey bees often, the Harvard School of Public Health Study showed that the odds of being stung by a bee were 6000,000:1. There is a greater chance of being struck by lightning.
While bees can sting people, it is usually only a defence mechanism. A bee will sting as a last resort, an action that usually claims their life. A bee’s stinger has a barb on the end which gets caught on your skin when it stings. Its attempts to free itself usually end up disembowelling the poor insect.
Africanised Bees (known as killer bees) are abnormally aggressive towards people and animals, but these are test-tube hybrids that were bred (African bees and European bees) to produce the best honey. Unfortunately, bees from the testing managed to escape the labs, resulting in a deadly swarm of insects that have been known to kill people and animals in the United States of America.
Quick Fact: While one bee sting could kill someone with an allergy to their venom, it would take an awful lot of bee stings to kill a human in normal circumstances. Children could survive up to 500 stings at once, while adults could handle up to about 1,000 stings before succumbing to the toxins.
Beekeeping has done the world a great service by helping the conservation of bees, who are quite literally sustaining the world we know.
Avoiding Apocalypse
Stories of the end of the world have been around for thousands of years. Nowadays, people look to asteroids, seismic events, polar ice caps, solar flares, and more, as the possible means of our planet’s demise. Nobody seems to look at something a little closer to home.
The truth is, if bees died out, there’s a good chance that much of the life we know would die out with them.
Bees contribute to life on earth through pollination. They are the primary pollinator in the animal kingdom, ensuring that plant life can continue to reproduce. In fact, 1/3 of the human food supply is dependent on pollination. It is for this very reason that great efforts have been made in the past few years to make sure that bee life is conserved.
Did you know? As of 2020, there are an estimated 2 billion bees left on the planet. Stats in 2017 showed that the USA had 2.88 million active colonies, which was a 12% decrease of 3.28 million in 2012.
When bees fly from flower to flower, little hairs on their legs and abdomen collect pollen as they land. Some species of honey bee even have special sacks that carry the pollen on their hind legs. This is then transported to the next plant as the bee flies around, causing some of the pollen to rub off and fertilise the flowers.
Harming bee populations in any way could severely threaten the ability of flowers and plants to reproduce. It is therefore critical that conservation steps are put in place to neutralise risks to bee populations.
The current threats to bees include:
Urbanisation: As urban areas have grown; natural bee environments have been destroyed. It also limits the ability of beekeepers to keep bees in these areas.
Pesticides: Plant pesticides have killed millions of bees and their colonies over the last few decades. While farmers seek to save their crops from harmful pests, they have had a negative knock-on effect for bees. Fortunately, the European Union took drastic steps to ban certain pesticides in 2018, in an effort to save the bees.
Climate Change: Climate change influences flora and fauna. Many wildflowers have died out as a result of this interruption to climate patterns, meaning that there are fewer sources of pollination.
More Bee Benefits
Despite the primary importance of bees as mentioned above, there is still so much more we benefit from.
✓ Honey – Liquid Gold
Honey is a by-product of the sweet nectar that honey bees bring into the hive. The constant fanning of their buzzing wings causes evaporation of the liquids, leaving behind a deliciously sweet resin, called honey. Honey has 6 primary benefits for your body:
- It’s a good source of antioxidants.
- It’s a great antibacterial and antifungal remedy.
- It heals wounds.
- It helps digestive issues.
- It soothes sore throats.
Despite its obvious tasty advantages, honey is also extremely healthy and enjoyed by many cultures.
✓ A Sting a Day keeps the Doctor Away
Research has shown that bee sting therapy can work wonders when treating the painful symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. While we should never promote killing bees, it is helpful to understand what sorts of chemicals can aid in fighting pain on this level.
Quick Fact: Bee venom is a cocktail of various chemicals, including melittin, histamine, and other biogenic amines. While stings are usually only a little painful, the severity of the pain depends on where on the body you are stung.
Bet on the Bees
There are a few ways that you could celebrate the conservation of bees. We, at Gambler’s Pick, would like to offer you a slot game solution or two. We can identify a handful of casino games that promote bees. Play one or more of these games at a partnering casino for maximum enjoyment within a safe and fair gambling environment. Turn your aspirations for liquid gold into golden rewards of another type!
✓ Honey Rush by Play’n GO
Turn a rush of honey into a rush of money worth up to 9,000x your real money stake with Play’n GO. Honey Rush works on a cascading cluster win mechanic, granting you more winning ways after successive wins.
The vibey and happy-go-lucky tunes combine with bright visuals, a rush meter feature, and Wild wins to provide you with stunning entertainment.
✓ The Hive by Betsoft
Grab some sweet wins over a hexagonal honeycomb grid while taking in pretty visuals and engaging animations. Few bee-themed games will leave you with as much affection for the insect as this one will.
The game has a lower variance than most, but exciting feature rounds will do well to turn your bets into bucks worth close on 400x your stake. Fill up the jar with honey and you can enjoy free spin action with extra Wilds and satisfying rewards.
✓ Show me the Honey by Genii
Genii conjures up a delightful bee-themed game that provides not only premium 3D visuals but calming and happy music while you play.
Set a stake of up to €50 and spin the reels to land wins over 40 possible paylines. The game features will keep you buzzing and offer modifiers such as Wilds, Free Spins, Bonus Pick Game, and more.
The Safe Bet
Hopefully, bee awareness will give you more appreciation for our little black and yellow friends and make you think twice before swatting the little buzzer with a rolled-up newspaper.
Preservation takes the efforts of the entire population and not only a group of individuals. For the best bet on keeping life on track in a practical way, help save the bees by spreading the word about the marvellous little creatures that they are.
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