Son of a Bee

In some places, the very sight of a bee causes panic, screaming, running away from them, and even the introduction of a can of insect killer into the situation.

And while it is true that I once had an unfortunate (for both of us) encounter with a bee who happened to be on my lawn one morning when I stepped out barefoot to retrieve the newspaper, I don't fear bees; I respect them and I enjoy their contributions to our wellbeing.

In the South American nation of Colombia, the world's second-most biodiverse country, there are at least 550 varieties of bees. That's the count from the environment ministry, and even they say there might be as many as 1,445 bee species down there.

So it's not surprising that bees in Colombia get pampered like nowhere else. As a matter of fact, in the town of Barbosa, the Aburra Valley Metropolitan Authority is building tiny hotels to give unswarmed solitary bees a place to rest up and charge up after a busy day spent pollinating.

These little teeny Holiday Inns are wooden hexagonal constructions, and have plastic roofs to keep sleepy bees dry in the rain. Inside under the roof, a bee will find bamboo canes to allow for a night of undisturbed sleep.

"It's like a hotel because here they're going to have a quiet moment in their room  before setting off again," said Hector Ivan Valencia, an assistant for the local authority's risk management unit. There's no mention of air conditioning or cable tv.

After checkout time, Valencia and his colleagues take small paint brushes and clean out the "hotel rooms."

"If this were a regular hotel, I'd be one of the people cleaning the rooms," Valencia said.

(Hector, better make sure that everyone has checked out before you start sweeping!)

Bees play a vital part in agriculture, of course. They fertilize plants, and for all their trouble, they are threatened by what humans do. Pesticides, fertilizers, and climate change are challenges to bee survival.

The authorities in the Aburra Valley are doing what they can to help the bees, and their ten municipalities (including Barbosa and Colombia's second city, Medellin) are putting up the hotels to help the buzzers.

"Globally (bees) are being negatively impacted and they are losing more spaces every day," says Juan David Palacio, director of the metropolitan area's environmental and transportation authority, by way of explaining why they want to help.

Valencia points out that most people are aware that honey bees are in danger, but the solitary, pollinating, bees, need some love too. 

"These little bees are supremely sensitive to poisons and since they don't produce honey no one speaks up for them, so we're coming to the rescue," he said.

It doesn't take much to help the world be better. Be Best, as they say!