Magical Busy Bees

Infants no Honey

There is also a safety note: honey should never be given to infants under one year old, because of the small risk of botulism spores. So honey survives not by beating other sweeteners on price or calories but by being something different. It is the sweetener with a landscape inside it, and a growing number of people are willing to pay for that. The most important thing a honey bee makes is not honey at all. It is pollination, the quiet transfer of pollen from one flower to another that allows plants to produce seeds and fruit. Roughly three-quarters of the world’s leading food crops benefit at least in part from animal pollination, and those crops supply a large share of the vitamins, minerals, and variety in the human diet. Apples, almonds, blueberries, cherries, cucumbers, melons, squash, avocados, and coffee all lean heavily on bees and their relatives. Remove them and the grocery store would still have bread and rice, but it would look like a very beige place. It is worth being careful here, because the popular slogan, “no bees, no food,” is a little too tidy to be literally true. Wheat, rice, and corn are pollinated by wind, and honey bees are not the only pollinators; the world has some twenty thousand species of bees, plus flies, butterflies, beetles, bats, and birds that do the same work. Humanity would not starve overnight without honey bees. But the slogan points at something real. Honey bees are the most adaptable and portable pollinators we have, and the modern food system has been built on the assumption that they will show up. Without them, many crops would yield much less, prices would rise, and diets would narrow dramatically toward starch and away from the fruits, nuts, and vegetables that keep people healthy. The real force of the idea, though, reaches well beyond human dinner tables. Most of the world’s flowering plants, around eighty percent or more of wild species, rely on animals to carry their pollen. Those plants form the base of nearly every land ecosystem. Their seeds, fruits, and berries feed birds, rodents, bears, and countless insects, that feed foxes, hawks, and snakes.

Bees Valuable Pollinators

Their leaves and stems feed deer and cattle. Their roots hold soil in place and their canopies shade streams. Pull out the pollinators and the damage does not stop at one plant; it ripples through the entire food web, because every animal on land is connected, however distantly, to a plant that had to reproduce. Even a cow grazing on alfalfa is eating a crop that depends on bees to make seed. In that sense, any creature that eats, directly or indirectly, is sitting at a table that pollinators helped to set. This is the deeper meaning behind the saying, and it is accurate in spirit even if the arithmetic needs nuance. Biology is a chain of dependencies, and bees are a link that many other links hang from. For all their importance, honey bees are in a difficult era. In 1987, the parasitic varroa mite arrived in the United States, and it has since become the single greatest threat to managed colonies. The mite feeds on bees, weakens them, and spreads viruses through the hive. Beekeepers now spend a substantial share of their time and money managing mites. Around 2006, many beekeepers reported a baffling phenomenon in which whole colonies emptied out as the adult workers vanished, which came to be called colony collapse disorder. Scientists concluded that no single culprit was to blame. Instead, a combination of parasites, pathogens, pesticides, poor nutrition, and stress from long-distance transport seemed to be overwhelming the bees. Habitat loss has made things worse, because the wildflower-rich meadows that once fed bees have been replaced by lawns and monocultures that bloom for only a short window. The news is not all grim. Researchers are breeding mite-resistant bee lines, beekeepers are refining their management practices, and gardeners are planting flowers that bloom across the season. Cities have embraced rooftop hives, and farmers are experimenting with wildflower strips along field edges. Small decisions such as skipping pesticides in a garden, planting native flowers, or buying honey from a local beekeeper add up to the cycle of nature.

Ancient Honey Bees

The honey bee has been on Earth far longer than our species and has been our companion for nearly all of recorded history. We painted her on cave walls, buried her honey with our kings, built temples lit by her wax, and borrowed her instincts to design our hives. We also learned, sometimes the hard way, that she is more than a source of sweetness. She is a worker in the most important unseen industry on the planet, the quiet exchange between flower and insect that makes seeds, fruits, and ecosystems possible. The next time you stir a spoonful of honey into tea, it is worth pausing for a moment. That golden drop represents the work of a bee who flew a distance equal to many times around the Earth for her colony’s lifetime, visited thousands of flowers, and handed her small treasure to a sister who handed it to another. Honey is delicious, and it competes admirably in a world full of cheaper sweeteners. But the real gift is the flowering world the bees keep alive, and every one of us is a guest at its table. I have a deep respect for honey bees and their untiring work that they preform on a daily basis to bring forth natures bounty to the world. There is no question which sweetener is the best for its ability to stay fresh for long periods of time and is the best choice for food storage. Many can attest to the pleasure of comb honey in a glass fruit jar on a cold winters day, when you are home for the holidays on pancakes or French toast with creamy butter. The summer harvest is come due and we must remember that the do not mind sharing their hard works with us, but please leave enough honey for them to survive the cold wind days of fall and winter. If we take too much honey the bees will not be there for you the following spring and summer months. Winter them in area protected from the strong winds of fall and winter so they can relax a bit and regain their energy for the productive spring and summer months. Good beekeeping methods will assure lots of honey will be in your future and the pleasure of knowing the balance of nature has been preserved for many generations.

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