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Bees are vital to the world’s food security, with two thirds of Australia’s agricultural output dependent on honey bees, and an estimated one in every three mouthfuls of food globally reliant upon bees. Honey, that's huge!

Queen Bey, aka Beyoncé, aka Mrs Carter, aka Sasha Fierce is the bees knees. She tours the globe with her perfect pitch, amazing outfits, and her gorgeous daughter who - while named after a colour and a noxious weed - has managed to ooze more charisma and sophistication in her 2 years on the earth that I ever hope to achieve. Sigh. She’s amazing.

Both bees and Queen Bey are legit for very different reasons. They share similarities, they have differences. They’re both great, as you'll discover upon reading the below, and while I can barely go a day without listening to Beyoncé's entire back-catalogue, we’re probably better off in the long run if we do something to protect, preserve and nurture bees. Who Runs The World? Well, we reckon bees do, closely followed by Bey.
                    
In an effort to educate you on the importance of the old honey bee, we’d like to do a compare and contrast with my girl Queen Bey. What’s the point? My mate Simmo wants to set up a honey bee colony in her backyard in Sydney, spread some of the pollination love around and help the bee population one hive at a time - so that's what your hard-earned pledges are going towards. We also want to spread the good word of the bee in order to have more people understand their beeswax. Simmo has read up on honey bees and she’s done the course, now all she needs is some equipment including a bee brush, a smoker, a suit and an apiary. “A what?, you ask, an apiary.
That brings us to lesson one. 

Lesson 1 - Semantics

apiary
ˈeɪpɪəri/
noun

a place where bees are kept; a collection of beehives. 

Lesson 2 - Economics

Queen Bey’s earnings were $115 million as of June 2014 according to Forbes magazine. The girl has a net worth of around $536 million. She’s got it dialled. But she ain’t the only bee who’s worth a bundle.

It has been estimated that honey bees’ contribution to crop production is around $4-6 billion per year. In Australia alone. Holy beehive, that’s some decent coin.

                 
Lesson 3 - Theology

Both Queen Bey and those queen bees are worshipped, and have been for a long time, and will continue to be.
Queen Bey has 20.78 million followers on Instagram and counting. With a mere 832 photos posted she has an impressive posts:followers ratio. As we all know Instagram is the highest level of worshipping in the modern era. Queen Bey, we salute you.

Wind this bad boy we call time back 10,000 years and images of bees as goddesses can be found across the globe. Mayans knew they were on to a good thing, and have been practicing bee husbandry for thousands of years. They used honey as a sweetener, antibiotic and to prepare a fermented drink. The favourite honey bee amongst the Mayans is the 'Melipona beecheii', traditionally called 'kolil kab' in the Mayan language. This translates to ‘royal lady’.

Ahem:
                           
Lesson 4 - Productivity

In her 17-year career, Beyoncé has won 17 Grammy Awards. That's an impressive Grammy to year ratio right there. As a solo artist she's sold over 75 million records and a further 60 million as Destiny's Child. Solid, Bey, solid. 

A single worker bee produces about 1/10 of a teaspoon of honey in their lifetime - think of how many bees contributed just to deliver you your sticky honey soy chai! They get the business done on the pollination front, with one bee able to pollinate up to 18,000 flowers per day. Queen Bees can live from between 2-5 years, while a worker bee lives for only around 4-16 weeks.

Lesson 5 - Physical Education & Dance

Beyoncé enrolled in dance classes at St Mary’s Elementary School in Texas. Not long later she joined an all-girl group called Girl’s Tyme and the four girls danced their way across Houston. In 2008 Beyoncé released her third studio album I Am… Sasha Fierce with the number-one single Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It). It was the film clip to this song that went viral, creating a major dance craze that has been parodied, copied and performed across the globe. The video hauled in several Best Video wins across the globe the following year. This track, popular with young and old, males, females and Wolverines alike, is depicted in the illustration below.

Bees search all day for new nectar sources as they try and get their job done. This can mean exploring anywhere between 100m-1.5km from their hives. Once they’ve hit the jackpot they let their crew know through the communication of dance. That. Shit. Is. Cray. But it’s true. When they find nectar they return to the hive and are able to relay the exact location of the nectar through an intricate dance routine. The richer the food source, the more involved the dance.

The bee is the only insect that communicates through dance.  The most common bee dance is called the Waggle Dance and is depicted in the diagram below.

                         
Who Runs The World?
Ok, so now you have the low down on how good, nay amazing, bees are, and a reminder on how pretty amazing Queen Bey is, let’s talk about the serious stuff. Across the globe our little bees have been dying at unprecedented rates. The causes are plenty: poor weather, parasites, disease, pesticide use, stressful transportation. According to Business Insider Australia our Farm Bill passed in 2013 allocated less than $2mill a year in emergency assistance for honey bees. To put this into perspective Beyoncé earns more than this per show she performs.

As our food demands increase the current trajectory of the honey bee population will find it difficult to service pollination required. If we can’t pollinate you can say goodbye to avocado on toast, say goodbye to pumpkin soup, no more apples for you and almonds will be a distant memory. There would be of course huge effects on associated industries - there wouldn’t be enough feed for cattle - driving up meat and dairy prices, and heaven forbid the skincare industry would suffer as honey is used extensively as a natural moisturiser.

In Simmo’s backyard, in just one bee colony, she can house between 60,000-80,000 bees. They will have the ability to produce 300kg of honey in one year, while pollinating their little beehinds away and prospering.

We hope that people will be inspired to think about the impact and involvement that bees have in our daily lives, and maybe encourage you to put some money where your honey goes and help Simmo set up the beehive of her dreams. 

Happy pledging. 

Who knew bees were so expensive!

Simmo needs to hook up the following equipment: suit ($200), hive $500), smoker + hive tools + bee brush ($200), bee club membership and registration ($60). Membership and registration will assist with notification of disease outbreaks and will cover the cost of the honey extractor to remove honey from the hive.

If we reach our target then wacko!! You little beeeeauty. If we manage to exceed it then funds will go to the upkeep and potential growth of the bee colony, admin for ongoing education around honey bees, and further research.

We'd be honoured if you showed us the money, honey!

Not getting stung.