"Wall", said Don Hall, a sometimes neighbour, "thar used to be a lot of honey bees in this here chestnut tree. It would be buzzing in the summer. But thar gone, everywhere, not just in these parts, thar gone. And that's a bad thing, cause they pollinate most everything. "
Surprisingly enough, a few hours later, our orchard was swarming with honey bees. An enormous swarm was dangling between the branches of an apple tree. Later they moved to a pile of lumber, boxes for our vegetable garden. Neighbour Susan gave us the phone number of a bee keeper. And so, began a practical lesson on the amazing honey bee. It was a terrific experience. We watched the bee keeper put out a hive. The excited bees started gesturing with their wings and pointing their backsides to tell their hivemates about the new home.
Bee Keeper John, a wonderful source of information, estimated that the swarm consisted of 20,000 bees. Most of these being worker bees, a smaller number of drones and a queen. The worker bees are females that are looking to start a new hive. They are the nannies of the bee hive looking after the eggs and feeding the babies. They select 8 - 20 of the children to become queens and feed them the Royal Jelly which transforms these bees from workers to queens. The rest become workers.
Bees tend to swarm at this time of the year, having feasted on apple blossoms and other spring flowers, and awaiting the late June clover.
After the eggs are hatched the workers spend the first 3 weeks of their short lives bustling about the hive feeding new babies. After that they guard the hive from intruders, and then take to the outside world to become foragers. While the nannies are busy the queen is also busy laying eggs, up to 2000 in a day.
The drones (the males) of which a swarm may have 2,000, are free to roam about and visit other hives. However these hapless fellows are evicted from the hives in the fall. The gentlemen are slightly larger than the ladies but are unable to sting.
As neighbour Hall put it, "bees are in danger". Beekeeper John tells us that one of the most significant issues facing these ladies is PMS, parasitic mite syndrome. Specifically the varroa mites. Miniscule little red creatures that look like crabs, who lay their eggs in the royal jelly and play havoc with the offspring of queen bee. Some bees are born with damaged wings, and a drone that we saw was missing a leg. Another enormous problem for the bee population is CCD, colony collapse disorder. Entire hives can simply die off. Bee keeper John thought this was the result of pesticides and other pollutants.
In the words of Don Hall "we need them honey bees".
Bee keeper John suggests that 40 - 60 percent of our fruit and vegetables are dependent on bees.
Einstein surmised that if the honey bees disappeared within 3 years mankind would too.
Scripture tells us that "God saw all that he had made,and it was very good." Each relationship designed by Him.
