Fauna and flora in Slovakia – the honeybee

€5 base metal collector coin

The honeybee is a distinctive member of the Apidae family. In Slovakia, these bees are the only ones bred in hives, producing for us not only precious honey, but also pollen, beeswax, venom, royal jelly, and propolis used in medicine. Honeybees are also unique in that they survive the winter as a colony, maintaining a continuous life cycle. Hence in early spring they are already acting as important pollinators of agricultural crops and other vegetation. Bees must visit flowering plants in order to collect their two essential sources of nutrition: nectar, a sugar-rich source of the energy they need to fly and survive the winter; and pollen, a protein-rich substance that they use as nutrition during their stages of development. Bees are a social insect, notable for their division of labour, communal care of their young, and ability to survive unfavourable periods by thermoregulating the colony and building up stores. The coin design depicts what for humans is the most important activity of bees – pollination – and at the same time shows the bee as a symbol of diligence and industry.