For two beekeepers in Hong Kong, their job isn’t really about making honey: they’re saving the bees.
After relocating the queen bee from a hive on the street into a bag, Harry Wong Ka-hon uses a brush to guide the rest of the worker bees to their new home, where they will be safe from extermination.
“Hong Kong is not very bee-friendly. Many people tend to spray insecticide,” shared Wong, a beekeeper who started Beetales, which is dedicated to bee conservation.
“What we want to do is educate the public that we don’t need to be too afraid of honeybees; they are our neighbours,” he said.
The need for bees
There are more than 20,000 bee species, and they are vital to life on Earth. Without them, many plants would not grow and reproduce – meaning we would not have food to eat. Bees pollinate many of the plants that provide most of the world’s food.
But climate change is making Hong Kong summers longer and hotter, which is bad for bees’ health.
“The time for bees to face their natural enemies like wasps also becomes longer,” Wong explained.
Longer summers also affect when flowers bloom, and bees struggle to rely on their traditional way of life to survive. “We are exploring ways to improve the health of the bees, since ... honeybees are experiencing more diseases and facing a population decline,” Wong added.
What does Beetales do?
Since they started in 2020, Beetales has held more than 100 workshops, teaching everyone from kindergarten children to the elderly about bees. On social media, they help people identify different bee species and deal with ones that enter their homes.
“It makes us very happy whenever people say they become less afraid of bees because of our page,” said another beekeeper, Jill Kwong Pui-wa.
Beetales hopes more Hongkongers will join their efforts to recognise the beauty and value of bees.
The biggest myth that Beetales hopes to clear up is that bees are dangerous. But as long as you do not disturb their hives, most bees will leave you alone.
“Many people believe that bees are prone to launching attacks. But they focus on their work and are not as dangerous as most people think,” Wong said.
Sample answers
Stop and think: Bees are important because they help plants grow and reproduce, so that animals and humans have enough plants to eat.
Consider: Climate change leads to the loss of bees’ habitat. Also, longer, hotter summers are not good for bees’ health.
