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Etymologists, farmers, grape growers and backyard hobbyists are sounding the alarm – not for the first time, about the crisis that won’t go away. Last week, several specialists gathered in the caves at Kunde Family Winery to share the latest news about the bee crisis, none of which sounded good to the 40 or so people in attendance.
Nor will it sound good to anyone who likes food, wine or the natural order of things.
According to the Web site honeycrisis.com, about one-third of human food requires pollination. Plants cannot survive without it. Bees are top-notch pollinators.
In 2006, there was a mass destruction of honey bee nests in this country. Approximately one-third of hives in the western United States disappeared. The phenomenon of worker bees abruptly disappearing from a hive or colony is called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a term first used in reference to the 2006 crisis. The rate of decline reached 36 percent in the winter of 2007. Some scientists estimate that the domestic honey bee population – on which most farmers depend for pollination – has declined by about 50 percent over the last half-century. Unless action is taken to slow that decline and augment their populations with wild bees, many fruits and vegetables may disappear from the food supply, according to Claire Kremen, a conservation biologist at Princeton University in New Jersey.
Frighteningly the population of bees, both feral and non-native species like honey bees, continues to be in freefall particularly in the United States. Europe is doing better than we are, except for pockets of disaster such as parts of Germany, and the African continent is doing better than any other place. That data would seem to support the theories about human intrusion, the introduction of non-native plants, development in or near former bee habitats and the widespread use of insecticides and herbicides being the culprits in this scenario.
But there is no shortage of theories. Major contributors to the decline probably include diseases spread as a result of mites and other parasites as well as the spraying of crops with pesticides. According to Kate Kellison, who spoke at the Kunde seminar, bees love to eat and share their food. After a forager returns to the hive with nectar, 90 percent of the bees will come into contact with it within an hour.
There are lots of suspects in this mystery, but so far scientists have discovered no single smoking gun.
Of the 1,000s of species of bees in this country, none comes close to the honey bee in the production of honey and wax. Concerns about the possibility that honey bees, which were introduced in the United States in the 1850s during the Gold Rush, would depress or eliminate the populations of native pollinators have largely been laid to rest, since in many cases the populations of native pollinators that have been reduced by honey bee competition have built back to usual levels in a couple of years.
California’s $34-billion agricultural industry, the largest in the country, provides fruit, nuts, seeds and vegetables that are the mainstay of our economy. The impact of honey bees on the California environment was described in a paper of the same name written by Eric C. Mussen, an Extension Apiculturist at University of California, Davis. Mussen goes beyond the confines of economics to analyze other effects.
“…where habitats are so degraded that some native bee populations have been reduced or eliminated, honey bees may be essential to foster initial re-establishment of native plant populations. Those plants provide food and shelter for wildlife and assist significantly in erosion control. Until the habitat is restored adequately to meet the requirements of native pollinators, it is likely that the presence of honey bees will be much more beneficial than detrimental in keeping the California native plants pollinated and reproducing. Thus, honey bees should be solicited for, not banned from, restoration areas.”
In the short term, what can people do to help avert this crisis? Restoring diversity and supporting habitats are good places to start. Also avoiding the use of any pesticides – except at night when bees are resting in their hives. The more you learn about the complex lives of honey bees, the more you’ll want to help. Please see the sidebar on recommended plants to add to your own habitat, be it farm, vineyard or back yard.
Important Honey Bee Plants in California
(Information provided by Eric Mussen, University of California, Davis Extension Apiculturist)
This is a partial list of options for supporting bee populations.
Major sources of nectar and pollen include ground covers such as black sage, bluecurls, buckwheats, mustard, wild lilac and yellow starthistle and shrubs such as bottle brush, purple sage, mesquite and poison oak.
To provide pollen, plant chickweed, Clarkia, Cleome, corn, flax, goldenrod, lupines, milk thistle, poppies, red maids, vetch, white clover, white sage, white sweetclover and wild radish, long with a variety of garden flowers. Good shrub sources include California laurel, desert peach, elderberry, creosote, paloverde, rosemary, sage brush, toyon, willow and Western redbud. Deciduous fruit trees and Eucalyptus are major producers of tree pollen, but oak, olive, pine, redwood and walnut are also good.
Some plants produce both pollen and nectar; some, just the nectar. Among the latter are cantaloupe, cotton, Penstemon, Western hyssop, coffeeberry, manzanita, and black locust, madrone and orange trees.
