Birds, Bees and Butterflies| Summer Fun Activity | Pollinator Week

Hello friends and welcome back today I want to share with you a video about our pollinators June is pollinator month and this week specifically is when we celebrate our pollinators and all that they do for us 75% of the crops that we grow that produce flowers we depend upon pollinators to pollinate them and fertilize them for us and not so just the past many of our pollinators population began to decline severely with the help of getting the word out and education and like you in your backyard populations are beginning to rise we are learning all the great benefits of pollinators and how we can help them Thrive many of us already know that planting flowers can attract beneficial insects like bees butterflies and hummingbirds it's also important to stop the use of pesticide Ides because even a little bit can kill beneficial insects like bees butterflies and hummingbirds but there is something else that we should talk about and that is water today I want to show you some ways to provide water for our beneficial insects as you can see by the clock on the wall it is about 1:30 in the afternoon and we've already reached the 90 degree weather let's find some creative ways to water our friends today I'm going to be using some cute little dishes that I've thrifted and picked up at grad sales or the Salvation Army or just things I had laying around I found this beautiful vintage piece that I'm going to be using not for our pollinators but for our Birds which I'm also going to be mentioning in this video a little later on the important thing is to get them all washed up so that there's no other chemicals on them wash them well and rinse them well so that there will be no residue for our friends when they drink [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] as you can see I'm using a wide variety of many different Treasures that I found by thrifting garage sales the Salvation Army or even things I had at home if you have young ones at home this would be a very fun summer activity to do with them part of the fun would be collecting the supplies and seeing how many neat fun creative things that you could find to use for the [Music] vessels now I'm using some glass stones and marbles that I've gotten from the Dollar Tree and I'm just going to make sure that they're all rinsed off and clean as well and then I will lay them to [Music] dry now it's time to make some hummingbird nectar I'm just using two cups of water and 1/2 cup of regular white sugar that's all they need we don't need to use any food coloring or any kind kind of dyes because those kind of things can make a hummingbird very sick so it's just water and sugar and we're just heating it on low just until it's completely dissolved we don't need to boil it we just need to wait until the water is crystal clear and all the sugar is dissolved once that's done we're going to put it in this jar to cool and while it cools we're going to move on to making some bee water stations [Music] to this small bowl I'm adding some clear glass stones and I'm going to completely line the bottom and then pour in just a little water we want the water in the bottom of the bowl but not covering what I call the bobbles or the stones or the marbles we want the bees to be able to land on the marbles and stay dry but be able to sip the [Music] water now we place them around the garden and the backyard close to flowers where bees will be getting the pollen [Music] [Music] moments later there is a bee on the flowers right next to where we put one of the bee drinking [Music] bowls earlier I mentioned I'd be talking about the birds and while birds are not pollinators they are definitely a fun activity to watch in your backyard I really enjoy watching the birds and seeing all the different birds that come into my yard this year I've had a lot of orol and oreol enjoy grape jelly so I have this beautiful vintage piece and I'm just going to add some jelly to it I'm also going to hang a little seed normally I don't this time of the year but it's hot and I don't want them to have to look too hard for food now now we're going to move on to butterflies using this Pond sample I'm going to make a butterfly feeding station now butterflies get water when they drink nectar bees eat pollen which is dry and if you've seen pollen in the spring it's very powdery so they're very thirsty but butterflies drink nectar which is liquid but butterflies need certain minerals in their diet which only comes from dirt and if you've ever seen butterflies in a mud puddle after the spring rain that's what they're doing they're getting their certain minerals sand which I'm using has a few more of those minerals that they need so I am using some sand and some large flat rocks what happens is they land on the Rock and they are able to take up the minerals in the sand if it's wet not too much water so that they get drowned but just enough balance between the liquid and the dry sand [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and then we can just simply place them in the garden preferably in the Sun and near flowers where the butterflies can easily find them the last thing on my list today for our backyard friends is to clean the bird bath often times minerals and deposits build up and it becomes slimy and I wouldn't want to swim in it or drink from it and I don't imagine the birds would either so I'm going to take some time today especially with this hot weather and it clean and add some cool crisp fresh water now I'm just pouring in some water with some vinegar in there and the vinegar is just going to help disinfect and clean it and it's not a harsh chemical that will harm the birds and I'm just moving it around letting it soak in and try to lift up any residue and all those things that are left behind once it's been in here for a few minutes I'm going to start scrubbing it and see how much we can loosen and remove [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] now we've added in some clear fresh water and their bath is nice and and clean I want to thank each of you for being here today and I hope this was educational and inspirational and I hope it inspires you to do something wonderful for the wonderful pollinators in your backyard if you do do some of these please comment down below and let me know what special Treasures you found what did you use for vessels did you see any unique bees or butterflies or birds in your backyard you can also head over to Instagram and you can post pictures there and tag me in them I would love to see all the wonderful things that are happening in your backyard thanks so much for watching friends be blessed be safe and I'll see you soon [Music] all