Photo by Licht on Flickr CC
Take a look at the food in your kitchen. See those oranges, raspberries, and pears? The sack of almonds? The basket of apples?
You got them thanks to the tiny little insect on the right: the honeybee.
Honeybees are an essential link in our food production. Without them we don’t eat a lot of the foods we love. But right now we’re in the middle of a honeybee crisis. Bees are dying off at an astounding rate, and people aren’t really sure why.
Why We Can’t Live Without Bees
Bees help pollinate over 100 crops, and we rely on honeybees for 1/3 of the food we eat.
Most commercial beekeepers earn a living by “renting out” their hives. That is, they transport their hives from field to field, letting the bees pollinate the crops.
Without this pollination, however, we would have a very serious food shortage. Which is why the Honey Bee Crisis is something we should all care about.
Interesting Fact: To produce one pound of honey, honey bees must visit 2 million flowers and fly over 55,000 miles (source).
The Honey Bee Crisis
So, what’s going on with our sweet little bees?
Well, they’re dying.
The Crisis started in 2006, so it’s a fairly recent phenomenon. That first year, over 1/4 of the nation’s hives collapsed, which meant billions of bees were lost. And it wasn’t just here in the States;  beekeepers all over the world started noticing a decline in their bee population.
Now, the depopulation has risen to one in three hives lost.
The Normal Life Cycle of Bees 
Courtesy Wikipedia
Courtesy Wikipedia
Hives go through two cycles of bees per year. According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, summertime bees usually only live about six weeks. They spend three weeks inside the hive growing and working, and then three weeks outside the hive foraging and pollinating. When it comes to the end of their life cycle, they fly off and die.
When fall gets here, the hive begins rearing a new batch of “winter bees”, which have a much longer life expectancy. These bees usually live from October through March.
The problem is that by the end of the summer, the hives are starting to fall apart. And the wintertime bees, whose function it is to “carry” the hive through the winter, aren’t making it. So, the hives are dying off.
What’s Causing The Honey Bee Crisis?
You’d think that if we could do heart transplants and invent the iPod we could figure out what’s killing such an important part of our ecosystem. And while scientists are frantically researching the problem, they haven’t yet figured it out.
One phenomenon that’s happening is called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Think of CCD like the disappearance of the early American colony on Roanoke Island; you know, everyone just mysteriously disappeared.
Although our bees aren’t carving cryptic words like “CROATAN” on nearby trees to give us clues, they are disappearing without a trace just like the Roanoke colony. They’re leaving their food supplies and their eggs and just flying off. There aren’t even any dead bodies for scientists to study.
But, CCD is only one part of the problem. Right now, only about 23% of the shrinking bee population can be attributed to CCD.
What else is the culprit? Well, that’s what scientists are trying to find out. Fast.
Bee Malnutrition
Some scientists think that malnutrition could be playing a vital role in the honeybees decline. And there are several factors contributing to this.
One is that, especially in California, cities are trying to get rid of invasive weeds. But during the winter, after the almonds have pollinated, bees feed on these weeds. The fewer the weeds, the more competition there is for feed. And the fewer bees survive the winter.
Another factor is that many beekeepers are taking all the honey and feeding the bees high fructose corn syrup instead.
But, none of these factors are proving conclusively to be part of the problem.
Mites, Spores, and Viruses
Bees are just as susceptible to mites and viruses as humans are. If a hive is infected with the mite Varroa destructor, the bees are going to die. Sames goes for the Nosema fungus.
Pesticides
Beekeepers estimate that they lose about 10% of their bees annually due to pesticides. And while pesticides are definitely a cause of death, it’s not something new. People have been using pesticides for decades. And our bees have been dying dramatically only for the past few years.
The Answer?
The likely answer is that bees are in a “perfect storm” right now. It could be several factors that are contributing to their shrinking population. Global warming, habitat loss due to urbanization, malnutrition, overwork, viruses…all could be playing a role.
How We Can Help The Honey Bees…
So, what can we do to stop the honey bee decline?
1. Plant Bee-Friendly Flowers
We can start by making our yards more bee-friendly. I know that winter is here, but we can start planning our spring gardens with the honey bee’s plight in mind.
PlanetGreen offers this great list of bee-friendly plants and flowers that help feed bees in your area:
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Mint
- Chives
- Oregano
- Marjoram
- Lavender
- Bee Balm
- Zinnia
- Sunflower
- Fennel
- Lamb’s Ears
- Black-eyed Susan
- Tulip poplar
- Clover
- Rhododendron
Also, the wilder and more natural your yard, the more bees are going to be drawn there for food. Learn to love your dandelions, since they’re an essential food source for bees in early spring.
And of course, skip the pesticides!
2. Take Up Backyard Beekeeping
Did you know that the Obama’s are beekeepers? Yep, they’ve got two hives living at the White House.
If you have the space, you could start a small hive of your own right in your backyard. Backyard beekeeping is becoming popular as awareness is raised about the honey bee’s dire situation.
Want to learn how to get started? Check out these resources:
- Backyard Hive
- National Wildlife Federation Instructions on How to Build a Bee House
- Mother Nature News: How To Keep Bees
3. Start a “Top Bar” Hive In Your Backyard
Courtesy Backyard Hive
If the idea of beekeeping is a little intimidating, then think about buying a top bar hive. Top bar hives are very small, and are not designed with honey production in mind. You still get honey, of course, but not on a large scale.
Basically, they’re safe places that small colonies that can set up a hive in a healthy, stress-free environment. You can watch the bees do their thing right in your backyard, which I’d imagine is really cool!
You can find out more on top bar bee keeping in this awesome post fromBackyard Hive. And, you can also order those beautiful hives right from their site.
Mother Earth News also has a great article on how to build a top bar hive yourself. Or you can check out The Barefoot Beekeeper, a site chock full of info (and forums) on top bar hives.
4. Buy Local Honey
By supporting local beekeepers you’re helping support your local population of bees. You can use LocalHarvest.org to find your local beekeepers. Just type in “honey” in the search box on the right, and put in your zip code.
5. Donate to the Honeybee Research Fund
The University of California is researching CCD. You can help fund their research by making a donation through the University’s website here.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for sharing this information. I printing and tucking away the list of items to plant next year.
Deb,
That’s great! I was really shocked at how dire the situation was for bees; I really didn’t know it was quite so serious when I started researching that post. I’d love to try top bar beekeeping next spring, and am going to try making my own this winter.
Years ago, in another life…
I wrote a pretty serious paper on how you could cripple a country by simply killing off all the bees…
It’s startling how just MUCH impact bees have on life in America (and all the other countries)…
It’s bad enough that they have to deal with all the pollution we create…
I remember reading that bees get complacent after they’ve supplied half a hive’s capacity with honey, so bee-keepers continuously empty the hive’s to keep those bees hoppin’ mad, and crazier than kids on a apre-Halloween sugar rush!
They essentially work the bees to death.
I’m thinking that if somebody did that to ME, I’d need to consult a pharmacist, at the very least.
So, you can all just take a great big relaxed breath… I’m going to dedicate my life to finding a cure for “bee craziness,” by creating “Bee Prozac.” I spent years out in the garage with the neighbor girl, pretending to be a “doctor,” so it’s time to put all that medical experience to good work!
Man, I wonder where you buy those little tiny stethoscopes? I’d better “google it…”
It could work… and Hey… I bet there’s even Stimulus Money for it…
Great information. We plant a flowering plant inbetween our vegetable garden plants to attract bees. Here is a great site to help with your backyard habitat and some helpful information about bees, butterflies and birds.
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/FEATURE/backyard/wildhab.html
Manfred Gerber, a beekeeper from Viernheim, small town in Hessen, who claims to have lost in 2005 almost 80 % of his bee colonies, has put two bee colonies within last two years to a test in the area, where since last five years only beet roots have been grown, and its seeds were treated with clothianidin. To eliminate all other stress factors he didn’t collect any honey from both of the colonies and treated them only against varroa mite. The bees were perfectly healthy till autumn. When Gerber checked the hives in January all the bees were dead. His assumption is that the pesticides got slowly into the soil. The mustard plants, that the farmer grew on the same filed where used to beet roots had been planted have also taken the pesticide; from the blossoms the bees collected the nectar und were using it as winter food. What in the end was the cause of their death. [...] disagrees Fridolin Brandt, life long hobby beekeeper; „we are living with varroa mite for 25 years now, it was always a topic for a hectic discussions but never so dramatic.†Many beekeeper use for example lemon acid, formic acid or oxalic acid, that damages the sense of smell of the varroa mite, and this way they keep the varroa problem under control. Also the president of beekeepers Wolfgang Hederer can’t stand the V-word anymore. He says: „The Varroa mite is suppose to divert our attention from plant protection products.“ And the newest research and tests of creating a bee, which would discard the parasite before it’s able to suck, are for him just an April’s fools joke: „It would be almost like creating a dog race, from witch all flees would run away automatically.â€
It was the strangest thing this morning. I took my dog, Grace, on her walk and she kept stopping and digging, then I noticed that she had picked up something.
I ordered her away and found it was a honey bee. I looked around and there was another and another. Possible a hundred bees in small holes in the snow next to the tree where the raccoon lives. I could still find them after about half a block.
I thought that maybe the bees had died in the late fall and the raccoon was digging in the tree and dislodged them, but then I noticed that all the bees were whole and all the wings were still attached. I would have thought that if they were dug out that some would be broken. A mystery!
The small holes could be accounted for because they warmed up more in the sun than the surrounding snow and so the snow had melted around them forming the holes.
Finding bees in northern Illinois in the middle of February – Strange!
Someone left a comment on my photo saying that they must have been \winter bees\ and gave me a link to your site. I think I’ll start a top bar hive this Spring. (If I can get my husband to agree.)
Dear Erin. I was shocked when I read that. It’s just terrible what is happening all over the world. And the funniest thing that my friend from India mailed me that in his country this phenomenon has not appeared. Surprisingly it might seem, but then I started digging in internet and it occurred that they use there more of that Endosulfan than Clothianindin – the one we use in western world. Hence no matter how many private hives we will built, nothing much will change, as the big farmers and pesticide companies, and all “environmental friendly” organizations are standing for ban of Endosulfan, and at the same time they suggest and promote Clothianindin…
I’m afraid we will really end up just like Alber Einstein said…no bee, no pollination, no plants, no animals, no men. And that too in 4 years after dying out of last bee populations.