BEE BULLETINS

Watch CBC-TV’s:
The Nature of Things - To Bee or Not To Bee

“Could bees be an early warning sign of a larger problem with our ecology?
Are they the canary in the coal mine for the health of planet earth?”

photo: A patch of star thistle in the foreground, a patch of goldenrod in the background among apple trees, pear trees, grape vines, wild asters and other wildflowers. Also note the beautiful clover and dandelion plants making the lawn greener. (Click on image to see enlarged.)

These are some photos that I took this summer of my father’s backyard. He always plants patches of bee friendly flowers throughout his property. This year, as a research project and for fun, he tagged flowers in a patch of star thistles at the start of their bloom and recorded how many consecutive days each individual blossom would remain open. These amazing looking patches of plants demonstrate a massive untapped potential waiting to be harnessed wherever manicured monoculture lawns prevail.

Some reasons why people should be planting gardens or patches of nectar and pollen producing flowers include:

• they require far less maintenance than the average lawn
• they can be used to produce fruit, vegetables, herbs, etc. for consumption
• they are far more eco-friendly than a manicured lawn
• they are fun to observe and interesting to study
• they look awesome

photo: Star thistle tagged so that bloom duration can be measured.

photo: Golden honey plant flowers.

photo: White asters.

photo: Purple asters.

photo: Closeup of a honey bee on goldenrod.

Photos by Lana Ironmonger:

Photo by feverblue on flikr and used under this Creative Commons license.

This article describes a study from the Journal of Human Evolution that compares a complex tool set invented by chimpanzees to acquire honey with Stone Age human tools. It makes me wonder: If we went back far enough, did the common ancestors of humans and chimpanzees use tools to obtain honey or did this behaviour emerge separately in both species?

When you consider estimates that humans branched off from our common ancestor with chimpanzees 5–7 million years ago (source: Wikipedia) and that honey bees have been thriving for at least 40 million years, it is can be hypothesized that honey bees have been a major influence in shaping the evolution of the human species and societies (eg favouring tool use, feeding on honey bee pollinated foods, developing agriculture, etc). With feral colonies disappearing at an alarming rate, the role of beekeepers with integrated pest management and the role of bee breeders in selecting honey bees for disease resistance, gentleness, honey production, hygienic behaviour, etc has probably never been more important, influencial, and essential in establishing the future of the honey bee.

I just spent some time in Washington, DC and snapped these photos of Obama’s backyard and beehive. The hive had two standard Langstroth brood chambers and two shallow honey supers. I was too far away to identify the red flowers planted around the bee's drinking fountain, but hope that they are a source of nectar and pollen for the honey bees. If anyone knows what they are, please add a comment or send me an email.

It is great that Obama has taken this step to promote an understanding and appreciation of honey bees. Hopefully people will be inspired by this to keep bees in their own backyards and call their cities to task if bylaws exist preventing them from doing so. A theme that I picked up from Washington is that “Freedom Is Not Free”; does your municipality allow you the freedom to keep bees?

This slideshow is from February 2008, when I joined my brother Tibor P Szabo and colleague and friend Dan Douma to experience beekeeping in Chile.  We were guests of Francisco Rey who owns and runs Pacific Queens, Sociedad Comercial Rey, and the www.apicultura.cl website. We also visited with Italo Terrezza and his family. Both Francisco and Italo are excellent beekeepers from a very beautiful part of the world.

During my short stay we spent several afternoons queen catching with Francisco’s team of beekeepers near Limache. Tibor and Dan spent the entire season working and visiting in Chile (Tibor’s second full season in Chile and Dan’s first). We were also fortunate to meet a beekeeper named Augustine and to learn about setting up an apiary for wheelchair use and accessible beekeeping.

photo: Italo and Francisco.

photo: Tibor, Augustine, and Francisco.

photos: Near Guelph Ontario on May 3rd, 2009, a sunny +16°C between 9:00 and 10:00am.

My father likes to plant various nectar plants throughout his lawn and apiaries. Purple Grape Hyacinths look gorgeous and provide a much needed early nectar flow for hungry bees. After they finish blooming the lawn can be mowed as usual and the flowers return in more abundance each Spring.

photo: Honey bee foraging on Purple Grape Hyacinth (Muscari spp.).

photo: Honey bee foraging on Purple Grape Hyacinth (Muscari spp.).

In a shaded part of an apiary grows a patch of Ontario’s official provincial flower - White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum). Bees were busy collecting bright yellow pollen from the trilliums.

photo: A patch of White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum).

photo: Honey bee foraging on White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum).

photo: Honey bee foraging on White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum).

photos: Near Guelph Ontario on April 11th, 2009, a sunny +7°C noon.

April 11th was one of the first sunny days of Spring. Some bees were foraging for nectar and pollen.

photo: Honey bees foraging on Siberian squill (Scilla siberica).

photo: Honey bees foraging on orange crocuses (Crocus spp.).

photo: Honey bees foraging on orange crocuses (Crocus spp.).

photo: Honey bees foraging on striped squill (Puskinia spp.).

photos: Near Guelph Ontario on February 8th, 2009; a sunny +1°C noon.

Spring dwindling is common, especially during periods of severe winter and extended spring. Older bees at the entrance of the hive are warmed by the sun, fly out, and are overcome by age, wind, and/or cold.

Spring dwindling is not to be confused with “Colony Collapse Disorder” or population dwindling caused by varroa mites.

photo: Over-wintering hives with dead bees in front.

photo: Dead bees in snow.

One of the most reported facts about honey bees:

One mouthful in three of the foods you eat directly or indirectly depends on pollination by honey bees.

This quote comes from a 2004 United States Department of Agriculture Report on honey bee benefits to agriculture and is referenced on countless honey bee-related web sites and news bulletins.

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Another commonly reported fact is that around the world we are experiencing decreasing honey bee populations:

Canada: Where have the bees gone? (Thanks Gary for posting this to our facebook site.)

New Zealand: Bee alert and alarmed

UK: Battle to save the honey bee

The solution?

Keep bees.

Plant nectar and pollen producing plants.

Support local beekeepers.