“When you’re ready, I have a honey bee story that should blow you away.”
That was Don Fowler writing to me in January. He’s a forestry consultant who lives in British Columbia and travels frequently. Mostly on the trail of pine bark beetles in the Rocky Mountains—as he says, “Possibly the largest insect infestation in recorded history.”
Now Don is adding honey bees to his portfolio.
He was getting ready to leave for Bakersfield, California to hang out with the bee keepers. “A million and a half beehives will be arriving in the almond groves there in the next couple of weeks.”
At the time, I couldn’t quite imagine what he was talking about. Semis loaded with bees from Nebraska, Texas, Florida? Trucked to the Central Valley to pollinate almond trees? Doesn’t California have its own bees?
The answer is: not nearly enough. Not in a monoculture like this–tens of thousands of acres planted with row after row after row of just one thing. No other plants allowed. Bees can’t live there year-round. And as Don says: No bees…no almonds.
The solution? Truck in massive numbers of migrant worker bees. By mid-February, when the almond trees are brilliant with blossoms, the bees have five weeks to get the job done.
Something in the way she moves
Earlier this month, I’m at the Environmental Film Festival at Yale, and there on a big screen is exactly what Don was telling me about. Endless acres of almond trees and truckloads of migrant bees.
The movie is Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?
The opening is captivating. A lithe woman moves slowly with her arms stretched to the sky. Her hair is braided to form a crown. Her upper body appears to be naked—except for a skin of honey bees. The bees are a living garment—covering her breasts and body perfectly.
The film draws you in like CSI: In 2006, beekeepers around the world began reporting a strange and troubling phenomenon — the population of their hives was shrinking dramatically, with the insects disappearing for reasons unknown to their minders, and in time close to a third of the world’s honeybee population had seemingly vanished.
Biologists and agriculturalists call it CCD—Colony Collapse Disorder—and the causes continue to elude researchers. The great fear is that honey bees are the canary in the coal mine. To treat bees as a commodity is to call down an ancient curse upon our heads.
Modify the monoculture
Don’s company [Contech] does innovative green tech R&D. He went to Bakersfield to test a new product in the almond orchards of a family owned empire—Paramount Farms. (Their website splash page features an iconic image of monoculture). Almonds are a $2 billion-plus-a year industry in the U.S.–and it is almost entirely dependent on honey bees. A very risky position to be in, so Paramount is investing in sustainable alternatives.
In February, Don and his team put their new product—called SuperBoost—into 4,600 migrant honey bee hives. The name has obvious marketing punch–but it also refers to what beekeepers call the top part of a hive: the “super.”
He sends me a scientific paper that summarizes the way it works: In nature, honey bee larvae produce a pheromone which tells worker bees “we’re here, and we’re hungry.” SuperBoost… precisely reproduces the composition of the natural honey bee brood pheromone. In turn, the workers forage with increased intensity for pollen and nectar. Nutrition of the larvae and the queen improves, the queen lays more eggs, and colony vigor is enhanced.
As Don says, in a time when CCD world wide is a huge problem, this has vast potential.
“Honey bees love almond blossoms. If they arrive here in good shape they’ll “spring build up” (population) fast. So much so, some of the keepers will split their hives in the almond fields after bloom. Then it’s off to the next stop on the HB highway. It’s a tough life. One of the bee keepers says they work them to death. There probably is some truth to that. Possibly contributing to CCD.”
What, then, is a sustainable solution? Take out every tenth row or so of almond trees, and plant foliage that will support native bees year-round. Modify the monoculture.
What are the bees telling us?
At the environmental film festival at Yale, Taggart Siegel–the director of Queen of the Sun–was on hand for a post-screening discussion. He defended his film’s combination of mysticism and science. He said he wants to show the film in Bakersfield–where everyone has a stake in the future of honey bees. [Find out where the film is playing here.]
It played at the Roxy Theatre on Gabriola Island on Earth Day eve–a ferry ride from Vancouver Island–which experienced devastating honey bee losses of 90% in 2009.
Don hasn’t seen the film yet, but he makes an observation that could well be in it: The bee keepers that really manage their hives well…have less losses. Those that do this for the money and expect more with less…don’t do very well. I am beginning to understand that good bee keeping is an art.
Honey bees and Humans are equally complex.
- Photos courtesy Don Fowler (except Queen of the Sun & San Joaquin)
- A new article in Science News delves into the search for “back-up bees” and other alternative pollinators.
- Article from England: “Bees Facing Poisonous Spring”
- See photographer Eric Tourneret’s website The Bee Photographer for a fascinating slide show of migrant bee truckers.