May 29th has been designated the national day of the honeybee in Canada, in hopes of raising public awareness of the plight of the honey bee.
Why all the fuss about bees? What makes bees so important? What dangers are they facing and what can we do to help them?
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, bees pollinate roughly 80% of flowering crops, which comprise approximately one third of our food. In addition, they pollinate crops that are food for animals that we raise for milk or meat, feeding us indirectly. Not to mention the countless wild plants that rely on bees for pollination. Pollination by bees increases the biodiversity of plant life.
Of course, bees also produce honey for us, plus an array of very beneficial products for our health: propolis, royal jelly, bee pollen and beeswax.
So why are the bees in trouble? Think about it from the perspective of a bee colony. They have survived the long winter on food stores from last season. The spring has finally come, and the warmth of the sun brings out the bloom of the dandelions. Finally, food! As one type of flower fades and another blooms, throughout the summer and even into fall, the many varied flowers, herbs, and crops within three to six kilometres of the colony provide a fairly continuous flow of nectar and pollen to feed and employ the bees.
But what has changed in the landscape? The bee comes out in the spring to find that everyone is spraying poison on the dandelions. And what once was a diverse plethora of flowering trees and plants is now kilometres of one crop which flowers once, and is then finished. And that crop is heavily sprayed with all kinds of toxins to kill weeds, funguses and insects - anything other than that crop! A bee colony can only effectively forage within a 6.5 kilometre radius. Monoculture is making it hard for bees to have a steady volume of food throughout spring and summer.
Large monoculture has deprived the bees of the diversity of plants flowering at different times with all the various nutrients that bees need. And who knows what ingesting multiple pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and other-cides will do to a bee? It's like combining multiple prescription drugs without knowing the side effects.
Since many monoculture productions still need bees for pollination, the bees themselves are subjected to the factory farming mentality that has erased their diverse habitat, and they are transported en mass from one poisoned field to another to perform their duties, pushing them beyond their normal capacity without regard for their safety or well bee-ing.
So… is there anything I can do to help? Yes, of course!
1. Start by not spraying what you own with chemicals that are probably harmful to you as well as to the bees. If you don't want weeds on your lawn, get down on your knees and pull them out. Plant flowers and herbs that will flower throughout the season. You can purchase seed packets of flowers that are specifically selected for bees.
2. Support local, small organic farms in your area. Buy at your local farmer's market or direct from the farmer.
3. You can also take up beekeeping as a hobby. Really! It's not that hard. And natural beekeeping with a top bar hive is a very inexpensive way to get started. Read a book, join a club or association, and visit other beekeepers to learn about beekeeping. You can also invite a beekeeper to keep hives on your property, if you have a suitable space.
Keeping mason bees is another option, requiring less work than honey bees. They are native to western Canada, and are very efficient pollinators. They do not produce honey, but they will produce a good harvest by pollinating every springtime blossom they can find.
So this May 29th, remember the bees; they play a major role in producing the food that you eat. And consider how they live. Every bee lives for the good of the hive, the plants, and you. A honey bee simply does not live for itself. Perhaps we should live more like them. Then we wouldn't be killing them, would we?
Colin Whiteside
New Sprout Farm
New Sprout Farm is a community farm in the Comox Valley, Vancouver Island, where people are learning to live more like the bees.
Colin is a member of the Comox Valley Bee Keeper's Association and several bee keeping forums including Top Bar Beekeeping Network (http://redeagle.com/bees/).
