Časoris is an online newspaper aimed at children. Each week we’ll take an article and post it here as a Slovene-English dual text.

Čebelice, čebelice, saj moje ste prijateljice …

Bees, bees, you are my friends…

Written by Dora Adamič, translated by JL Flanner & G Translate

Te dni lahko opazuješ nepokošene travnike. Ali veš, zakaj je tako?

These days you can notice unmown meadows. Do you know why that is?

Ponekod, denimo v ljubljanskem parku Tivoli, posebne table oznanjajo, da jih bodo pokosili, ko se bodo čebelice najedle.

In some places, such as Ljubljana's Tivoli Park, special signs announce that they will be mowed when the bees have eaten.

Te prav jutri praznujejo tudi svoj dan.

They are also celebrating their day tomorrow.

Leta 2015 so namreč na pobudo slovenskih čebelarjev razglasili 20. maj za svetovni dan čebel. Namenjen je ozaveščanju o njihovi vlogi, spominja pa nas tudi na to, da jih moramo zaščititi.

In 2015, at the initiative of Slovenian beekeepers, May 20 was declared World Bee Day. It is designed to raise awareness of their role, but it also reminds us that we need to protect them.

»Te dni tako razpravljamo o rešitvah za obstoj in krepitev številčnosti čebel ter drugih opraševalcev,« pravi Lidija Senič iz Čebelarske zveze Slovenije.

"These days we are discussing solutions for the survival and strengthening of the number of bees and other pollinators," says Lidija Senič from the Slovenian Beekeepers' Association.

Predvsem mladim želijo predstaviti pomembnost opraševalcev, njihove zaščite in jih naučiti veščin čebelarjenja.

In particular, they want to introduce young people to the importance of pollinators, their protection and teach them beekeeping skills.

»Čebele in drugi opraševalci skrbijo za biotsko raznovrstnost, so kazalniki čistosti okolja, z njihovo pomočjo pa si lahko prizadevamo za zmanjševanje lakote,« dodaja Lidija Senič.

"Bees and other pollinators care about biodiversity, are indicators of environmental cleanliness, and with their help we can work to reduce hunger," adds Lidija Senič

»Skrbijo namreč za opraševanje žužkocvetnih rastlin, kar je povezano s pridelavo hrane.«

"They take care of pollinating flowering plants, which is related to food production."

Čebele so ogrožene, saj globalno segrevanje, onesnaževanje okolja in intenzivno kmetijstvo omejujejo njihove vire hrane in jih spravljajo v stres.

Bees are at risk as global warming, environmental pollution and intensive agriculture limit their food resources and put them under stress.

V Sloveniji imamo tudi avtohtono kranjsko čebelo (Apis mellifera carnica), ki slovi kot delovna in odporna žival z odličnim smislom za orientacijo.

In Slovenia we also have the autochthonous Carniolan bee (Apis mellifera carnica), which is famous as a hard-working and resistant animal, with an excellent sense of orientation.

Na splošno čebele veljajo za izjemno pametne živali. Še posebej značilen je čebelji ples, s katerim si med seboj sporočajo, kje se nahaja vir hrane, pri tem pa se orientirajo glede na položaj Sonca.

In general, bees are considered to be extremely smart animals. Bee dancing is especially characteristic, with which they communicate to each other where the food source is located, while orienting themselves according to the position of the Sun.

Svetovni dan čebel bodo letos obeležili tudi na Prvem programu Radia Slovenija. V oddaji Lahko noč, otroci! med 16. in 22. majem zvočno uprizarjajo nove zgodbe iz knjižne zbirke Čebelica. Cikel bo posvečen Eli Peroci ob 100. obletnici njenega rojstva.

This year, World Bee Day will also be celebrated on the “First Program” of Radio Slovenia. In the show Good Night, Children! between 16 and 22 May, they are presenting new stories from the Čebelica series of books. The cycle will be dedicated to Eli Peroci on the 100th anniversary of her birth.

Read more stories and improve your Slovene at Časoris, while all our dual texts can be found here.

STA, 20 May 2022 - Young and beekeeping will be in the focus as World Bee Day is celebrated in Slovenia for the fifth year running on Friday after the UN declared it in 2017 on Slovenia's initiative to raise awareness about honeybees and other pollinators for agriculture, food safety and biodiversity.

The topic coincides with the 2022 European Year of Youth, with the Agriculture Ministry noting the role of transfer of know-how for the future of beekeeping.

The Beekeeping Association says it is important to raise awareness about bees being endangered and about what communities and individuals should to do preserve them.

Apimondia vice president Peter Kozmus thus urges planting native honey plants, mowing flowering plants after flowering, buying honey and other bee products from the nearest beekeepers and reducing the use of pesticides that are harmful to bees.

"When we help bees, we help other organisms as well as people," says Kozmus, adding that bees and people need practically the same conditions to thrive: clean air and a healthy environment without pollution.

A number of events will be held to mark World Bee Day, with one of them being an awards ceremony to give out Slovenia's top international award for outstanding achievement in beekeeping; the Golden Bee Prize will be conferred the second time.

Its first recipient - scientist Lucas Alejandro Garibaldi from Argentina, will meanwhile attend the main World Bee Day event, to be held on Saturday in Dolenjske Toplice, south-east, as part of the 19th Beekeeping Festival.

Slovenia is best known for its Carniolan honey bee (Apis mellifera carnica), but is home to more than 500 species of wild bees.

Statistics show that there were over 11,290 beekeepers in Slovenia in October 2020, who produced some 1,300 tonnes of honey.

World Bee Day is celebrated on 20 May to remember the day in 1734 when Anton Janša, the Slovenian credited with being the pioneer of modern beekeeping, was born.

The Beekeeping Association's head Boštjan Noč is convinced the message of World Bee Day is being successfully spread: "Today, the world talks respectfully of bees, beekeepers and all that goes with them."

This year's main international event marking the day will be the Food and Agriculture Organization's conference Bee Engaged: Celebrating the Diversity of Bees and Beekeeping Systems.

STA, 4 October 2021 - The first monitoring of wild bees in 2021 did not yield encouraging results, with the bumblebees count dropping five-fold compared to last year. "This is bad news for both agriculture and nature, as bumblebees are among the most important pollinators," the National Institute of Biology (NIB) said on Monday.

The most likely explanation for the decline was the exceptionally bad spring weather, said NIB, pointing out that research on pollinators in orchards showed that bumblebee numbers in spring, when fruit trees were flowering, were similar to previous years.

This means that the queen bumblebees overwintered successfully, but probably due to bad weather, frost and prolonged rain, they did not get enough food to nest successfully.

An additional problem in the decline of bumblebees is that their role as pollinators is particularly important in bad weather, as they are "known to pollinate even in the rain, cold and wind".

NIB said that bees have also faced similar problems, but they could survive adverse conditions more easily, thanks to the help of beekeepers.

"While fluctuations in animal populations, including bumblebees, are normal in nature, such a large decline in one year is worrying".

"Climate change, or weather extremes such as early springs followed by frosts and prolonged summer droughts, are destroying pollinators' food resources," the researchers warned.

In addition to the Carniolan honeybee, Slovenia is also home to over 500 species of wild bees, while other wild pollinators include flies, butterflies, some beetles and wasps.

According to NIB, the role of wild pollinators is very important in nature, while they also contribute significantly to pollination in agriculture, the value of which is estimated at EUR 120 million a year.

The monitoring of wild bees is a three-year pilot project that started last year and is being carried out at a total of 50 sampling sites across Slovenia.

The project is led by NIB, organised in cooperation with Slovenia's Natural History Museum and the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The funding is provided by the Slovenian Research Agency, the Environment Ministry and the Ministry of Agriculture.

STA, 20 May 2020 - In line with the motto of this year's World Bee Day, Bee Engaged, the city of Ljubljana has decided to take action to help the bee population in the city flourish. It announced on Wednesday that several greens and meadows will be mowed less frequently to provide food for solitary bees. The city has also set up nest boxes in three locations.

Nest boxes have been set up in Tivoli Park, near Vojkova Street and in the Podutik borough, Luka Šparl of the Tivoli, Rožnik and Šiška Hill Landscape Park told the press today.

"Different from beehives, which are used by the honey bees, nest boxes are used by solitary bees," which are very important for pollination, Šparl said. In Slovenia, 562 solitary bee species have been recorded, among them 35 bumblebee species.

These species are very important for areas where there are no or few honey bees, said Danilo Bevk of the National Institute of Biology.

Solitary bees face the problem of ever fewer suitable nesting places, he added. Bumblebees, for example, nest in or close to the ground and their nests are often destroyed by agricultural machinery.

"Solitary bees used to nest in thatched roofs and in wood cracks." But straw and wood are now barely used as building materials. Apart from pesticides and illness, bees face the problem of not finding enough food, Bevk said.

"Grass is mowed very early nowadays and meadows are increasingly fertilised and thus fail to provide enough food to bees and other pollinators. And the climate change has also left its mark."

Apart from deciding to mow less frequently the grass in some parts of Tivoli Park and in other locations, Ljubljana also continues to encourage its residents to set up bee hives on their roofs. Ljubljana honey is of good quality, Nataša Jazbinšek Seršen of the city's environment department said.

Boštjan Noč, the head of the Slovenian Beekeepers' Association, said the association had proposed to the Environment Ministry several times to provide subsidies for green roofs.

The association also suggested the government start gifting newborns with linden tree saplings, being that lindens are a national symbol in Slovenia and also produce a lot of honey, said Noč.

Also at the event in Tivoli Park were Environment Minister Andrej Vizjak and Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković.

STA, 6 December 2019 - Following years of efforts by researchers, a project was launched to design the first monitoring of the most important wild pollinators - wild bees - in Slovenia. Their role has long been neglected even if they are more effective pollinators than honeybees. Slovenian scientists would like to better understand them, and to do that they will apply machine learning methods.

Pollinators are key to both agriculture and the preservation of natural ecosystems. Although honeybees used to be considered the most important pollinators, it has become clear that it is crucial to have a variety of pollinators; wild pollinators such as bumblebees are for instance more efficient pollinators than honeybees.

Due to their short tongue, honeybees tend to avoid blossoms with a longer neck, which are pollinated by bumblebees. Bumblebees are particularly important for plants which require blossom shaking to be pollinated, for instance key crops such as tomatoes and blueberries, and another 16,000 plants. They are also indispensable for plants with very deep blossoms, which honeybees cannot pollinate with their short tongue, said Danilo Bevk from the National Institute of Biology.

Bumblebees are also special in that they fly around in bad weather, which is quite often the case when fruit trees are blossoming in the spring. "This is one of the reasons why we could say that they are the most important wild pollinators, although others, such as solitary bees, flower flies or butterflies are also important," said Bevk.

Keeping bumblebees as a hobby

While beekeeping is a very popular pastime in Slovenia, bumblebee-keeping is much less widespread, with only slightly more than 180 people keeping bumblebees in their gardens. One of them is Janez Grad, a doctor of mathematics and retired professor emeritus of computer science of the Ljubljana Faculty of Economics, who has had bumblebees in his garden behind his home for 35 years.

Every year about seven species of bumblebees find their home in his garden. "Queen bumblebees fly back to their hives after hibernation, just like swallows come back to their nest," said Grad.

Only bumblebee queens hibernate

Bumblebee hives in Grad's garden are empty in the autumn, as the animals go into hibernation, which usually lasts seven months. Only bumblebee queens from the past season survive winter, having dug into soil in the woods, away from people, animals and light, hibernating until early spring when new bumblebee families, worker bees, male bees and new bumblebee queens emerge.

The development of a bumblebee family depends on weather. If spring arrives early, new bumblebee families can appear at the end of February. But an early and warm spring followed by a cold spell disaster. In this case bumblebee queens leave their nest, leaving behind their brood. Once they return after the cold spell is over, it is often too late. This year May was cold and rainy, which Grad, one of the greatest experts on bumblebees in Slovenia, said would be felt next year.

People, disease and climate change pose a threat to bumblebees

Climate change is one of the most serious threats to bumblebees and will affect the majority of bumblebees in Europe. Researchers expect that as a result of anticipated climate changes, almost half of all bumblebee species could lose 50-80% of their territory by 2100, said Bevk.

"However, for some species changes will be an opportunity. A Mediterranean bumblebee spread here a decade ago probably due to climate change. Climate change will of course have a negative impact on pollination, so it is even more important to preserve a high degree of diversity of pollinators."

Various diseases, and some birds which eat bumblebee queens in spring, are another threat to bumblebees. However, Grad said that people are enemy No. 1 of bumblebees, destroying their habitat with intensive agriculture, frequent and early grass cutting, and with the use of pesticides.

First monitoring of solitary bees and bumblebees

Sixty-eight species of bumblebees have been discovered in Europe, of which a quarter are at risk of extinction. Half the populations are in decline, Bevk explained. There are 35 species in Slovenia, and while some of them have not been noticed for quite a while, their extinction cannot be proved because there has been no wild bee monitoring in Slovenia yet.

In November, after five years of efforts by researchers, a project was launched to design the monitoring of wild bees - solitary bees and bumblebees - in Slovenia.

"The project aims to develop a methodology of wild bee monitoring, launch test monitoring at selected locations, assess the situation of wild bees and draft guidelines for sustainable monitoring of wild pollinators in Slovenia," explained Bevk.

The National Institute of Biology, which is in charge of the project, believes this will enable them to gather hard data about the movement of bumblebee and solitary bee populations in our country, which is of key importance in designing adequate measures to protect and monitor the efficiency of these important pollinators. Regular monitoring could make Slovenia a leader in this field in Europe, the institute said.

Machine learning to study bumblebees

An important contribution to better understand bumblebees has been made over the past few years by researchers from the Jožef Stefan Institute's department for intelligent systems, which has been researching buzz sound and temperature in close collaboration with Professor Grad.

Grad contacted the Jožef Stefan Institute a few years ago asking for help in analysing the bumblebee buzz which he had recorded in previous seasons, explained researcher Anton Gradišek. With the help of Grad's recordings, the institute developed an app which draws on machine learning and which, using advanced computer methods, recognises which bumblebee species makes which buzz sound, and whether the sound is made by a queen or worker bee.

Researchers at the institute are not the first to study bumblebees, but their research is different in that it is carried out in nature, in Grad's garden rather than in a controlled lab environment. Gradišek said the garden proved to be an excellent natural laboratory, enabling them to study not just a few of the most interesting species but a number of different ones.

The institute is researching different aspects of bumblebees, including sound and temperature. Sound research has resulted in a new simple method to record bumblebee flight to establish when bumblebees are more active, which depends on the species.

As part of the research into temperature, small temperature sensors and thermometers are put in hives to monitor how well bumblebees can keep temperature, which is important for the development of larvae. If the temperatures is adequate, the larvae develop properly, whereas an environment too hot or too cold affect the development of the colony.

"The research has shown that we can recognise different species of bumblebees quite well, which is important for further studies of biodiversity. The temperature research is interesting from the aspect of climate crisis and its impact on the development of bumblebees," said Gradišek.

The researchers would also like to study communication in the nest, for instance how bumblebees let others know the location of the food in the nest, which bees do with waggle dance. They would also like to know how changes in temperatures in the nest and its surroundings affect their activity.

STA, 22 July 2019 - Slovenia boasts thirteen native breeds of domestic animals, with most of them considered endangered or vulnerable, so their preservation is of national importance. A network to support breeders, set up in 2016, features a dozen farms and seven agricultural centres.

There are four native breeds of sheep in Slovenia, with the Jezersko-Solčava coming from northern Slovenia, Belokranjska Pramenka from the south-eastern region of Bela Krajina, the Bovec from the upper valley of the Soča river, and Istrska Pramenka from Kras and Istria.

Other native breeds include the Drežnica goat, the Krško Polje pig, Carniolan honeybee, the Štajerska chicken and the Cika cow.

The three native Slovenian breeds of horses are the Posavje, the Lipica and the Slovenian cold-blooded horse.

Preserving these breeds in their own local environment is in line with the Convention on Biological Diversity, the programme for development of Slovenian agriculture and rural areas, and the long-term programme of protecting biological diversity in Slovenian animal husbandry.

In 2016, the Public Service of Animal Husbandry Gene Bank, which covers the field on the national level, set up the Slovenian network of breeders of endangered native breeds. The same year, the first farms received certificates for breeding endangered native animals.

Currently, 12 farms and seven agricultural centres have the certificates.

"The number of such farms has been increasing very slowly, but our goal is not so much to have more of such farms but to improve the quality of promotion and preservation (of the animals), which is the basic mission of these farms," Danijela Bojkovski and Metka Žan of the Public Service of Animal Husbandry Gene Bank told the STA.

"We would primarily like the wider public to understand how important it is to preserve native breeds and use their products," the pair said.

To get the certificate, a farm must breed at least three native breeds of domestic animals. It can also breed other domestic animals, but at least half of the animals have to be of native breeds.

The agricultural centres breed native domestic animals mainly for educational and tourist purposes.

Both types of farms are encouraged to market the products of the native breeds, follow the guidelines of organic farming and also preserve native plants.

The farms can receive state subsidies for breeding endangered native breeds as part of the programme for development of Slovenian rural areas.

The Karst Shepherd, a breed of dog of the livestock guardian type, is also a native breed whose conservation status is critical.

A breeding program was accepted in 2009 to boost the number of dogs, improve their characteristics and preserve their genetic diversity.

STA, 18 May 2019 - Slovenia is gearing up to celebrate the second international World Bee Day, designated by the UN on Slovenia's own initiative, with the main event marking the holiday taking place in Ravne na Koroškem (N) on Saturday. Several exhibitions and workshops will also be organised.

The international day acknowledging the role of bees and other pollinators for the ecosystem is observed on 20 May, the birthday of Slovenian Anton Janša, the pioneer of beekeeping, born in 1734.

The day dedicated to honeybees was declared in December 2017 by the UN General Assembly with a special resolution, honouring the initiative and efforts for bee protection by the Slovenian government and the national Beekepers' Association.

"The declaration represents one of the greatest diplomatic achievements of Slovenia ever," the Slovenian Agriculture Ministry said ahead of the event.

It added that the main purpose of World Bee Day was to raise the awareness of the global public about the importance of bees and other pollinators for humankind in the light of efforts to eradicate global hunger.

The ministry noted that bees and other pollinators were indispensable from the economic, social and environmental aspects, and a source of income for more than two billion farmers.

They also significantly contribute to food security, prevention of hunger, preservation of diversity of ecosystems and the implementation of sustainable development goals.

But the ministry also noted that bees were increasingly endangered due to the intensive farming, diseases, mass use of pesticides and climate change.

"World Bee Day is an opportunity for experts, politicians, businesses and public to get active in preserving bees, developing beekeeping, maintaining biodiversity and planning activities which ensure the survival of bees and humans."

The main international ceremony will be held in Rome on Monday, hosted by the Slovenian Agriculture Ministry and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), featuring Minister Aleksandra Pivec and FAO Director-general Jose Graziano da Silva.

The common thread of the second World Bee Day is empowering women through beekeeping, while the ministry has also pointed to its initiative presented to the European Commission for mandatory labelling of honey mixtures and origin of honey.

The latter is something Slovenian beekeepers have been calling for, in addition to the fight against fake honey, lower taxes for medicines for bees and refunds of excise duties for energy they spend for transporting and caring for bees.

Boštjan Noč, the head of the Beekeepers' Association, recently said that additional efforts were needed to protect bees as they were effectively endangered. "World Bee Day has resulted in a sea of change in Slovenia and the world, but celebrations and photo shoots will not save bees."

The association has long argued bees should be classified among endangered species, with Noč stressing the animals cannot survive without human help, which requires the state changing some rules.

Beekeepers have also warned that due to the unfavourable weather, this year's harvest will be lower by more than 30% than expected.

Among the promotional activities related to World Bee Day, Slovenia plans to introduce a Golden Bee award for best and most innovative projects focused on the protection of bees and other pollinators. The award would be conferred every year or every two years by the president, with the first award scheduled for 2021.

To mark the day, the Statistics Office published some beekeeping statistics, noting that Slovenian beekeepers produced a total of 1,746 tonnes of honey last year, which is 10% above the average for the last ten years.

The average price for a kilogram of honey increased in the last ten years by 81%, reaching almost ten euros last year, according to the Statistics Office.

The record year in the last ten years was 2011, when Slovenian beekeepers produced 2,472 tonnes of honey, followed by 2013, when the production reached 2,400 tonnes.

Slovenia imported around EUR 3.5 million-worth of honey from other EU member states last year, mostly from Croatia, Hungary and Germany, while exporting around EUR 212,000, mostly to Italy.

In addition to honey, Slovenian beekeepers also export Carniolan honey bees, with exports last year amounting to around EUR 47,000, mostly to the Middle East countries and Japan.

The number of beekeepers in Slovenia increased in the last ten years by 30% to around 10,100, while their number in the EU is decreasing. The area intended for bee pasture in Slovenia has also been increasing in the recent years.

In 2016, there were a total of 167,000 bee hives in Slovenia or 1.1% of the total number in the EU, with the average number of bee hives per beekeeper at 17.

There are around 20,000 sub-species of bees in the world, with the Carniolan honey bee, originating from Slovenia, being the second most widespread sub-species in the world.

All our stories on bees are here

The UK’s Guardian newspaper has published a report noting Slovenia’s efforts in the fight to protect a vital pollinator, the bee, at local, national and international levels, with the latter seen in the introduction of World Bee Day, a Slovenian-sponsored initiative that aims to ensure a safe future for this key link in the global food production chain. 

How a non-Slovene, non-beekeeper, non-author ended up writing a novel about beekeeping in Slovenia. 

A time-worn tale of love between human and insect.