Honey Bees have been
crucial for agriculture. They are valued as much or more because their hives can be
moved about to intensively pollinate crops, such as almonds, peaches, and
citrus, than for the
honey production itself. There are a number of plants that strongly
attract bees including rosemary, nepeta,
lippia, and obviously the Matilija
Poppy
below. My favorite honey comes from the native sage plants, Salvia
mellifera, Salvia apiana and Salvia
leucophylla. Bees will fly as much as 5 miles to find nectar,
though typically far less if they can find food closer to home.
Honeybee populations are threatened by Varroa and tracheal
mites. Aspergillus flavus and Acosphaera apis, two kinds of fungus.
Streptocarpus pluton a kind of bacterium and Africanized bees. With
more and more insecticides being systemic, or being taken up by the plant
and incorporated into the plant tissue, and the creation of ever more
insidious insect toxins being introduced to the genetic code of our food
plants is hardly a good thing from a bee's perspective, nor likely our's.
A
new disease called Colony Collapse Disorder has been linked to the Israeli
Acute Paralysis Virus. Hives that are commercially tended seem to be
much more likely to get the disease. This may in part be due to the
frequent stress caused by the moving of the hives as well as the
increasing pervasiveness of these environmental toxins. The virus
seems to reduce the capability of the immune systems in the bees making
them susceptible to many other diseases and in many cases just messing
their little bee minds up enough that they can't find their way home..
The
Africanized bees may actually help the honey bee become more hardy but
they have quite a temperamental streak that does not seem to have become diluted
much as
the Africanized bees interbreed with the tamer honey bees. The
Africanized bees have moved into Southern California and are at least as far north
as Santa Barbara on the coast, Tulare County in the central valley and
well into the Owens Valley. Caution should be taken with wild hives.
The Africanized bees can not
be differentiated from their tamer brethren without a dissecting scope
even if you knew what you were looking for, except possibly by the vigor
of the humming around the hive. It is not just that each
individual bee gets mad more easily, and they aren't any more poisonous,
but they communicate their displeasure to their cohorts and sting in
mass. Looking for the
good side in this they seem to be much more productive pollinators.
A lot of native bees including mason
bees, flies that mimic bees,
and butterflies are also great pollinators. As the honey bee
population has declined the other native bee's and insects have increased their
presence in our gardens. There is plenty of food out there for them and they are
taking advantage of it. This doesn't help the commercial grower much,
as many of the orchards need intensive pollination, are often far
removed from wild-lands or even diverse landscapes, and require
pollination at during a cold part of the year when many insects don't fly
much. Much of the year
a commercial agricultural planting is not an insect friendly place.
Might this be a call for a return to the hedgerow or an inter-planting
concept instead of a mono-crop approach? And maybe a call for a few
less insecticides?
Fruitless Fall is an excellent book chronicling
the bee's circumstance in great detail. The greatest hope for the
honey bee may come from the diverse plantings of the garden as well
as from the native plants. Bees like the rest of us seem to be much
healthier on a varied diet. From a gardening standpoint, lots of
flowers all of the time is always a good thing, and the bees think so
too.
One last, thought . . . . lavender
honey ice cream . . . might just want to keep a few of the bees around for this
alone.
