If your superpowers included communicating through dance, making honey from scratch and pollinating plants - I might also crown you 'The Bee's Knees'. Brimming with usefulness, honey bees (scientifically known as Apis mellifera) are just one of around 2000 species of bees inhabiting Australia. Honey bees were introduced in the 1820s to provide us with honey, bee's wax and pollination and we still use these services today.
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A range of crops rely on bees for pollination. Avocado, almond, onion and sunflower all need bees to help them reproduce. The bees collect the pollen to feed their young, the plants get lucky. The male flowers have pollen (think sperm) that hitch a ride on the bee and rub off on the next flower to fertilise the female's ovules (aka eggs). This gives us new genetic combinations of fruit. Interestingly, many other plants are more productive and grow larger fruit when they are visited by bees (these include cucumber, mango, apple, asparagus, cherry, kiwifruit, rock melon and pumpkins).
Through an incredible feat of cooperation, honey bees split their colonies into different roles with queens that breed, workers that hunt for food and male drones that mate with the female. Bees cooperatively care for their young and pass on their genes by helping closely related individuals to breed more successfully. Communication among colonies was brought to fame in the 1960's when scientists discovered that dance could be used between bees to convey information about the distance and direction of food. Search "waggle dance" in YouTube - mind blowing stuff.
Widespread honey bee declines have received attention in Europe and the US. Bees are threatened by climate change, disease and insecticides. You can help bees by growing bee-friendly flowers in your garden. Retaining or restoring areas of grassland with native plantings, like in less productive farming areas, is an effective way to increase pollination services. Bees love native plants that flower at different times of year with a range of shapes and colours. For more detailed information on attracting bees, search "Bee Friendly: A planting guide for European honeybees and Australian native pollinators" for a free online resource.
You can also join the 'Wild Pollinator Count' to help scientists count the pollinators around Australia and to learn to recognise the different species in your garden. Log onto https://wildpollinatorcount.com/ and submit observations you've made between April 14-21. Simply watch a patch of flowers for ten minutes and you'll be amazed at what you see.