Many bees have different characteristics that make them suited to pollinate certain plants. For example, the Early bumblebee’s small size and agility allow it to enter plants with drooping flowers such as comfrey. Garden bumblebees are better at pollinating the deep flowers of honeysuckle and foxgloves than most other species because their long tongue can reach deep inside them.

Manyfarme3rs rely on a diversity of bees to pollinate their produce. For example, commercial apple growers benefit from the free pollination services of the Red Mason bee. This species can be 120 times more efficient at pollinating apple blossoms than honeybees.

There is evidence that natural pollination by the right type of bee improves the quality of the crop – from its nutritional value to its shelf life. For example, bumblebees and solitary bees feed from different parts of strawberry flowers. In combination, they produce bigger, juicier, and more evenly-shaped strawberries.

Some bee species have an affinity to particular plants, so need particular natural habitats. For example, in the UK the scabious bee, our largest mining bee, needs the pollen of field scabious or small scabious to provision its young. These plants grow on sandy or chalky open grassland, an important habitat for a variety of bees and wildflowers that is under threat from changing land use. The loss of particular habitats like this is the main driver of bee decline.

In a world without bees, we would probably survive. But our existence would be more precarious and our diets would be dull, poorer, and less nutritious. And not just for want of honey.

Even some plants grown to feed livestock for meat production, such as clover and alfalfa, depend at least partly on bee pollination.

Governments and food producers talk a lot about food security, yet without bees, our food supply would be insecure. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) identified encouraging pollinators – particularly bees – as one of the best sustainable ways to boost food security and support sustainable farming.

All this natural crop pollination fills pockets as well as our bellies. The global market value linked to pollinators is between US$235bn and US$557bn each year. In the UK alone, the services of bees and other pollinators are worth £691m a year, in terms of the value of the crops they pollinate. It would cost the UK at least £1.8bn a year to employ people to do the work of these pollinators, yet bees do it for free.