the bees

The bees.  Ever since, as a city inspector, I was hearing reports of weird bee infestations in new developments, it has been in the back of my mind that something is wrong in bee world.

Turns out, our bees are in trouble, which means we are in trouble.   One third of the human diet depends on plants pollinated by insects, predominately honeybees.  They are dying, from inbreeding, captivity, and lack of natural diversity.  The bee business consists of boxing and shipping them to the almond groves of California, a month later to the apple orchards in Washington, a month later the cherry groves of Montana.  Then the grossest thing of all happens . . . Arlee Apiary bees are sent to a sandy lot near San Francisco, where they spend the winter living on corn syrup.  5000 hives are fed from a 300-gallon tank of corn syrup.  Their lids are sealed until the warmer weather arrives and back to work they go to the same monoculture crops that make the bees nutritionally stressed.  Heather Mattlila of Wellesley College, who studies honeybee behavior and genetics says, “one of the most devastating pressures on bees is the limit on what they can eat.  Vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins - all the same things we need to survive, come from pollen,” which come from different types of plants.

 “Bees have been around for 80 million years,” says Sam Comfort.  Commercial bee colonies, faced with massive mortality rates are not faring so well according an article written by Morgen E. Peck.  The national great bee die-off asks, “what has caused a third of all commercial honeybee colonies to perish each year since 2006?”

The answer is colony collapse disorder (CDC), meaning the bees are not strong enough to fight viral and bacterial infections, pesticide poisonings, and mite infestations.  “We need to have a diverse set of genetic raw material so we can find bees resistant to disease,” says Steve Sheppard, an entomologist at Washington State University.  “Genetic diversity is an important part of the solution.”

I care about the bees.  Not just because our food is dependent on them, but because I believe it is morally wrong to destroy the natural environment and carelessly eliminate other species.  If anyone wants to talk bees with me, please come on by!

Material for this blog post was taken directly and indirectly without permission from Discover Magazine.

Lisa, co-owner Olive Branch