We went out on a warm late January day to observe the bee hives Arthur (Green String alumni) keeps at Green String. Bees dislike cold temperatures so we ran a risk of upsetting them, however being such a sunny day, we went for it anyway. Rick (our apiary expert), and Arthur cracked open one of the two hives to give us a peak in. There were some ants going for the honey which annoyed the hive but everyone remained calm so the hive remained calm too. Upon lifting the first frame out of the hive, we were excited to find that it was a lucky pick and the queen was in sight (she usually stays on the bottom box). With a strong hive of 50,000, the chances of seeing a queen on a single pull was very low, but we got to see it, it was a lucky pull on the only frame taken out!! The queen in this hive is marked with a blue dot, making her easier to identify. 

Bees are great pollinators and their role in any ecosystem is vital. They also happen to produce a delectable food for themselves which humans, as well as other animals, have discovered a taste for - honey. Honey is made and stored over the course of the year to get the bees through winter. That is why when collecting honey, one needs to make sure to do it in early summer so the bees have plenty of time to restore the reserves for winter and remain a healthy hive, after all, their presence is beneficial beyond just their honey. Bees collect pollen from various plants in order to turn it into royal jelly which becomes the food source for the next generation of larvae. Propolis is another product created by bees which they use to plug and seal holes making an air tight hive. Given proper conditions bees will form propolis covered entrances which acts as an antimicrobial. Rick, gave us some great tid bits about propolis, "The only bacteria free completely sterile area in the natural world exists in the hive of a honey bee" propolis around the entrances kills any potential contaminants to the honey reserves. It is also thought to contain many medicinal benefits for human consumption. 

Due to misuse of bees from large scale agriculture wild bee populations are suffering. For generations fruit and nut growers have used bees to pollinate their crop. Just put some hives out in the orchard and the bees will do all the work naturally. Somewhere along the line bee breeders got lazy and started to dwindle the genetic pool of the breeding program by using bees from the same hives in successive generations. These inbred bees eventually escaped into the wild and dominated wild bee gene pools. This effectively lowered the adaptive advantage of bees to imported diseases, for instance the mite Varroa destructor, which can only reproduce within a bee colony and can wipe out an entire hive within a year. With a healthy wild bee gene pool, many believe this would have been avoided. 

The three enemies of bees in California: mites, ants, and bears

Ways to reduce ants: diatomaceous earth and standing legs in bowls of water

Tree boxes keep bears from bothering them because they can't knock them over.

Mites need to be dealt with naturally through the strength of a healthy hive and time to adapt genetically. 

Sam W. - Winter 2015 intern