of America, however, prefers to use two words “honey bee.” So that’s the version I use in this book. Here’s the society’s rationale: The honey bee is a true bee, like a house fly is a true fly, and thus should be two words. A dragonfly, on the other hand, is not a fly; hence, it is one word. Tip: Spell it both ways when web surfing. That way, you’ll cover all bases and hit all the sites!
WHY BEES MAKE GREAT POLLINATORS
About 100 crops in the United States depend on bees for pollination. Why is the honey bee such an effective pollinator? Because she’s uniquely adapted to the task. Here are several examples of bee adapations:
The honey bee’s anatomy is well suited for carrying pollen. Her body and legs are covered with branched hairs that catch and hold pollen grains. The bee’s hind legs contain pollen baskets that the bee uses for transporting pollen, a major source of food, back to the hive. If the bee brushes against the stigma (female part) of the next flower she visits, some of the pollen grains brush off, and the act of cross-pollination is accomplished.
Most other insects are dormant all winter. They initialy emerge in spring only in small numbers until increasing generations have rebuilt the population of the species. Not the honey bee. Its hive is perennial. The honey bee overwinters with large numbers of bees surviving on stored honey and pollen. Early in the spring, the queen begins laying eggs, and the already large population explodes. When flowers begin to bloom, each hive has tens of thousands of bees to carry out pollination activities. By midsummer, an individual hive contains upward of 60,000 bees.
The honey bee has a unique habit that’s of great value as a pollinator. It tends to forage on blooms of the same kind, as long as they’re flowering. In other words, rather than traveling from one flower type to another, honey bees are flower constant. This focus makes for particularly effective pollination. It also means that the honey they produce from the nectar of a specific flower takes on the unique flavor characteristics of that flower — that’s how we get specific honey flavors, such as orange blossom honey, buckwheat honey, blueberry honey, lavender honey, and so on (see Chapter 15 for a lesson in how to taste and evaluate honey varieties).
The honey bee is one of the only pollinating insects that can be introduced to a garden at the gardener’s will. You can garden on a hit-or-miss basis and hope that enough wild bees are out there to achieve adequate pollination — or you can take positive steps and nestle a colony of honey bees in a corner of your garden. Some commercial beekeepers make their living by renting colonies of honey bees to farmers who depend on bee pollination to raise more bountiful harvests. Known as migratory beekeepers, they haul hundreds of hives across the country, following the various agricultural blooms — to California for almond pollination in February, to the apple orchards in Washington in April, to Maine in May for blueberry pollination, and so on.
I’ve witnessed the miracle in my own garden: more and larger flowers, fruits, and vegetables — all the result of more efficient pollination by bees. After seeing my results, a friend who tends an imposing vegetable garden begged me to place a couple of hives on her property. I did, and she too is thrilled. She rewards me with a never-ending bounty of fruits and vegetables. And I pay my land-rent by providing her with 20 pounds of honey every year. Not a bad barter all around.
Being part of the bigger picture: Save the bees!
Keeping a hive in the backyard dramatically improves pollination and rewards you with a delicious honey harvest by themselves good enough reasons to keep bees. But today, the value of keeping bees goes beyond the obvious. In many areas, millions of colonies of wild (or feral) honey bees have been wiped out by urbanization, pesticides, parasitic mites, and a recent phenomenon called colony collapse disorder (otherwise known as CCD; see Chapter 11 for more information). Collectively, these challenges are devastating the honey bee population.
Many gardeners have asked me why they now see fewer and fewer honey bees in their gardens. It’s because of the dramatic decrease in our honey bee population. Backyard beekeeping has become vital in our efforts to reestablish new colonies of honey bees and offset the natural decrease in pollination by wild honey bees. I know of many folks who have started beekeeping just to help rebuild the honey bee population. A number of celebrities have become hobbyist beekeepers and publically promote the need to save bees. These high profile beekeepers include Morgan Freeman, Bruce Springsteen, Leonardo Di Caprio, Jennifer Garner, Scarlet Johansson, Jon Bon Jovi, and Samuel L. Jackson, to name a few.
Getting an education: And passing it on!
As a beekeeper, you continually discover new things about nature, bees, and their remarkable social behavior. Just about any school, nature center, garden club, or youth organization would be delighted for you (as a beekeeper) to share your knowledge. Each year I make the rounds with my slide show and props, sharing the miracle of honey bees with communities near and far. On many occasions, local teachers and students have visited my house for an on-site workshop. I’ve opened the hive and given each wide-eyed students a close-up look at bees at work. Spreading the word to others about the value these little creatures bring to all of us is great fun. You’re planting a seed for our next generation of beekeepers. After all, a grade-school presentation on beekeeping is what aroused my interest in honey bees.
BEE HUNTERS, GATHERERS, AND CULTIVATORS
An early cave painting in Biscorp, Spain, circa 6000 BC, shows early Spaniards hunting for and harvesting wild honey (see the accompanying figure). In centuries past, honey was a treasured and sacred commodity. It was used as money and praised as the nectar of the gods. Methods of beekeeping remained relatively unchanged until 1852 with the introduction of today’s “modern” removable-frame hive, also known as the Langstroth hive. (See Chapter 4 for more information about Langstroth and other kinds of beehives.)
Courtesy of Howland Blackiston
Improving your health: Bee therapies and stress relief
Although I can’t point to any scientific studies to confirm it, I honestly believe that tending honey bees reduces stress. Working with my bees is so calming and almost magical. I am at one with nature, and whatever problems may have been on my mind tend to evaporate. There’s something about being out there on a lovely warm day, the intense focus of exploring the wonders of the hive, and hearing that gentle hum of contented bees — it instantly puts me at ease, melting away whatever day-to-day stresses I may find creeping into my life.
Any health food store proprietor can tell you the benefits of the bees’ products. Honey, pollen, royal jelly, and propolis have been a part of healthful remedies for centuries. Honey and propolis have significant antibacterial qualities. Royal jelly is loaded with B vitamins and is widely used around the world as a dietary and fertility stimulant. Pollen is high in protein and can be used as a homeopathic remedy for seasonal pollen allergies (see the sidebar “Bee pollen, honey, and allergy relief” in this chapter).
BEE POLLEN, HONEY, AND ALLERGY RELIEF
Pollen is one of the richest and purest of natural foods, consisting of up to 35 percent protein and 10 percent sugars, carbohydrates, enzymes, minerals, and vitamins A (carotenes), B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (nicotinic acid), B5 (panothenic acid), C (ascorbic acid), H (biotin), and R (rutine).
Here’s the really neat part: Ingesting small amounts of pollen every