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Live Bee Cam
YIT's Live Bee Cam has ended. You can watch the summary video from below.
The stars of YIT Live Bee Cam are of a Finnish-Italian breed
The experiment was done in road maintenance and helped to improve the living conditions of rare insects, as the bees pollinate food plants growing on the sun-scorched slopes and elsewhere in the area. When bees pollinate plants, the plants can reproduce and provide more food for insects, such as rare butterflies. Some butterfly species feed only on certain plants. Increased food supply also enhances the butterflies’ chances of reproducing, thus improving the species' chances of survival.
For example, the northern dock (Rumex longifolius), which is scarce in the area, is a food plant for the larvae of the large copper (Lycaena dispar). Threatened insect species also live on the grasses growing in the scorched areas; among the butterflies, the dusky meadow brown (Hyponephele lycaon) is one of them.
The location is also good for the bees as there is a varied environment nearby, with marshland, hillsides, fields and forests.
More information about the stars of the Live Bee Cam
Bees belong to the order of hymenopteran and the best-known species is the honey bee, which is a domestic animal and can be seen in live bee cam. The average length of worker bees in the hive is 12–13 mm. They are female and live for about six weeks, except for those born in late summer, which can live in the hive through the winter. The queen can grow up to 20 mm long and is the only bee in the hive that can reproduce. It can live for several years. The sole function of the drones, or male honey bees, is to mate with a queen from another colony, thus creating a new colony. Drones do not have a stinger and die after their mating flight.
In July, there were around 60,000–80,000 bees in the hive. The bee only stings when protecting its hive or when threatened and dies after stinging.
The world’s bee populations have been declining in recent decades. The decline of pollinators threatens both nature and humans, as 75% of crops need at least partial insect pollination. You can help bees yourself by planting pollinator-friendly plants in your garden, leaving your lawn unmown, building an insect hotel, not using toxic substances in your garden and guiding a bee that has wandered indoors out without harming it.