May 20 has been declared World Bee Day by the United Nations. At first, it might seem odd to dedicate an entire day to the same pesky insects that ruin backyard barbecues but bees are actually extraordinarily important to our entire way of life. Bees pollinate almost 90 percent of the world’s wild flowering plants and more than 75 percent of global food crops. So without bees, our food and plant life would soon die off.
What’s frightening about that is the fact that bees are actually threatened by climate change and loss of habitat, all of which is due to us humans messing around. So the UN has declared May 20 World Bee Day, so we can all take a moment to appreciate those little buggers, who might sometimes be incredibly annoying, when they’re buzzing around your grille while you’re trying to pretend to listen to your wife’s friend’s boyfriend talk about his “sweet vinyl record collection”, but are actually rather important to our entire ecosystem.
What does this have to do with Rolls-Royce? The folks in Goodwood have created The Apiary, a home to over 250,000 English Honey Bees (what makes them English, do they have Monocles and say things like “daresay”?). Those 250,000 bees live in six English-crafted wooden beehives and roam around forty two acres of trees, shrubs and wildflowers.
Of course, Rolls-Royce harvests the honey made from those bees and serves it to customers and guests. It’s called “The Rolls-Royce of Honey” and it’s hand-processed by local specialists for guests of Goodwood. So if you buy a $400,000 car, at least you get some free honey out of it.
In all seriousness, bees are actually incredibly important to our ecosystem and need to be taken care of, which is why World Bee Day exists. Those little buggers need our support. So tomorrow, go buy some local honey today and watch The Bee Movie.
