CLOSED: The Honey Bee

I usually do not post here, but I came across this article and found it interesting.



Posted Online: Posted online: September 14, 2007 5:16 PM
Print publication date: 09/16/2007
The honeybee: a good gal down on her luck
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The Philadelphia Inquirer,


Photo: McClatchy Newspapers
In its lifetime, a honeybee travels about 500 miles.

Time was, you couldn't eat a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich without a yellow jacket landing on it and wrecking the picnic.

These days, the PB&J is harder to find, subsumed by trendier alfresco options. But the yellow jacket -- which isn't even a bee, for Pete's sake -- continues to be the poster child for bad bee behavior.

Actually, yellow jackets are wasps that look a lot like honeybees, but are thinner and more aggressive, especially at this time of year, when their populations peak. They like human food and garbage, and they can sting multiple times and keep on truckin'.

Meanwhile, the honeybee is really a mild-mannered creature that's fixated on flowers, not sandwiches, and is reluctant to sting because once it does, it dies.

Those who don't know the difference might celebrate the current honeybee crisis. But lovers of this marvelous creature consider it a tragedy that tens of billions of honeybees have mysteriously disappeared and died over the last three decades.

"I think many people don't understand how beneficial and gentle honeybees are. They're amazing," says Jeff Bryer, a psychologist who keeps 11 hives, each containing about 50,000 bees, in East Goshen, Pa.

While scientists search for a cause for the bee-killing affliction known as colony-collapse disorder, there's something quick and easy gardeners can do to help:

"Grow just about anything that flowers, and honeybees will find it attractive," said Warren Graham Jr., a longtime beekeeper and master gardener in Edgmont Township, Pa., near Philadelphia.

So plant holly trees and privet hedge, grow zucchinis and cantaloupe, sunflowers and zinnias, and let the dandelions and clover flourish! The more, and more variety, you plant, the more Apis mellifera -- the domesticated honeybee -- will be tempted to visit.

But this is not a one-way proposition. It's a win-win.

By planting things that flower, you'll provide the bees with sources for nectar, a sugary liquid they convert to honey to feed their young and sustain the hive through winter.

The flowers also yield pollen, which the bees collect for food and which sticks to the fuzzy hairs that cover their bodies. As they travel from flower to flower, the pollen rubs off and fertilizes the plants, a hugely important function for commercial agriculture.

A 1999 Cornell University study estimated that honeybees pollinate about $15 billion worth of crops in the United States every year. That's about one-third of all the food we consume.

Some crops, like blueberries, are 90 percent dependent on honeybee pollination, accomplished these days through rented hives. For California almonds, it's 100 percent.

The backyard benefits from honeybees, too. Other pollinators are out there, but the honeybee is the most important.

And she's quite the opportunist. Yes, this does get tedious -- the worker bees are all female. They gather the food, rear the kids, build the honeycomb, tend the queen, clean, and defend the hive.

The girls also pick up after the drones, who, naturally, are all male and literally exist for one thing only: to, as Gill so delicately puts it, "get lucky with the queen."


Fun facts about honeybees


Q: How many blossoms must be visited for honeybees to produce 1 pound of honey?

A: 2 million.

Q: How many bees are in a typical beehive?

A: In the summer, 40,000 to 60,000.

Q: What distance do honeybees fly from a hive as they gather nectar and pollen?

A: Typically, about two to three miles per flight.

Q: How long do worker bees live?

A: Six weeks in summer, several months in winter.

Q: How much honey would be required to power a honeybee's flight 25,000 miles around the world?

A: 2 tablespoons.

Q: How many miles does a typical honeybee fly in its lifetime?

A: 500.

Q: How many eggs does a queen bee lay per day?

A: About 1,500.

Q: What makes a bee buzz?

A: Her wings flapping 190 times per second.

Q: How far do honeybees fly to produce 1 pound of honey?

A: 55,000 miles.


Source: Chester County, Pa., Beekeepers Association