watermelons, and other large-scale crops, which can only be efficiently pollinated by honey bees. Bube has been interested in bees since he was a child, when he came across a wild colony in a beech tree while he was squirrel hunting.
“ It was a massive comb and the experience just stuck in the back of my mind.” Later, he had a friend who kept bees and he decided to try it in his garden area.
“ I just like natural things,” he said. While he once had three hives, he now has only one because of losses during the winter when the insects were affected by cold and dampness.
In 2015, President Barack Obama announced a plan to fight threats to honey bees, which include pathogens, reduced habitat, lack of nutrition, and exposure to pesticides.
Honey bee colonies have shrunk in the U. S. from 5.7 million honey bee colonies in the 1940s to about 2.7 million, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
In Indiana, 119 beekeepers participated in a study by the nonprofit organization The Bee Informed Partnership. The survey included 3894 bee colonies statewide, which experienced a 27 percent colony loss over the winter of 2016 – 17.
Humans have had a long relationship with honey bees, and it has been beneficial for both species.
The first cave drawings of bees date back 13,000 years, according to biologist Noah Wilson- Rich, founder of Best Bees Co. in Boston. Around 2400 B. C., Egyptians began keeping bees in Egypt, on boats and barges on the River Nile for agricultural pollination.
“ I could talk for days about the anatomy of a bee,” University of Maryland entomologist Dennis VanEnglesdorp said in a recent TED talk.“ I think that one of the things that strikes me about bees is that you often think about evolution as being this competitive thing. But bees are a testimony that sometimes evolution occurs as a dance.“ We have flowering plants because we have bees, and we have bees because we have flowering plants. This evolutionary dance has created beautiful blooms. I mean, these were the first advertisements— the ultraviolet markings said to bees,‘ Come here and visit me.’ The flowers produce all this pollen and nectar for the bees to bring back.
“ Meanwhile, the bees live in these social constructs that have evolved ways of existing so that they can find the flowers efficiently. The dance that’ s occurred between flowers and bees— I find it awe-inspiring.” •
Be Bee Friendly courtesy photo
Information sources: < iubees. indiana. edu >; < beeinformed. org >; < ted. com / talks / dennis _ vanengelsdorp _ a _ plea _ for _ bees >; < indianabeekeeper. com >; < 10oclockbeeline. wordpress. com, honey. com >.
• Provide lots of the right flowers, over a long season. Simple, old-fashioned varieties, wildflowers and dandelions, along with herbs and heathers, are best.
• A source of water and mud is useful.
• Choose organic food products. Crops grown without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides or herbicides are safer for humans and bees.
• Cut out the use of pesticides, especially neonicotinoid insecticides, which can remain in the soil for years.
• Create and protect bee nest sites.
• Buy local honey from a beekeeper you trust.
May / June 2018 • Our Brown County 25