This summer I discovered I have a huge honey bee hive up in one of the black walnut trees on my property. It’s high enough in the tree to not be relocated, but it’s still low enough that if you walk by it, you can hear their gentle buzzing. The bees pose little threat to us, so my family welcomed them to partake in the cooling water of our plastic water fountain by our porch.
On pleasant days, I sit out and watch the bees drink. It is hard to say exactly how many bees frequent the artificial watering hole, I mean they do buzz in and out, but I would estimate around eleven bees drink at once. After one to two minutes, a bee will fly away with a full belly. And if I listen carefully, I can hear the difference in the intensity of their buzz, for example, when they approach the water, they make low, lethargic sounds, and when they leave, they make high and energetic noises. Each bee has a different sound.
As someone who enjoys the company of insects, particularly bees, you would think this is a relaxing pastime, however, it is somewhat chaotic. You see, the poor bees keep falling in the water. The smooth plastic fountain has little grip, so the bees frequently slip in. I would feel guilty if one drowned, so I then nudge them out of the water with a soft push from a stick. For the bees, that stick is their life preserver, and I am their lifeguard.
This small act of saving a bee prompted me to think about this act on a larger scale. There are more honey bee “lifeguards” out there, they are the people researching ways to prevent further decline in bee populations, people supporting the growth of bee colonies, and even informing others about this endangered species. However, what if the bees did not have people helping them out, would they drown? Well, unfortunately bees are still struggling and they need more of us to help them.
The most recognizable bee is the honey bee, but it is only one species of bee out of “around 20,000 species” (Nicholls). And even though the honey bee is the most prominent species of bee in our minds, their numbers are still declining. According to a 2019 National Center for Biotechnology Information article, “Special Issue: Honey Bee Research in the US: Current State and Solutions to Beekeeping Problems”, “[t]he European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most important managed species for agricultural pollination across the world” (López-Uribe, Simone-Finstrom). We rely on these bees for the production of honey, beeswax and for their pollination of our crops and flowers. And because we benefit from their existence, it should be our responsibility to advocate for their better treatment, and yet their numbers continue to decline, “[d]espite their importance, managed honey bee colonies are experiencing annual mortality rates that now typically range between 30 to 40% in North America and Europe” (López-Uribe, Simone-Finstrom).
The above statistic is an alarming one as it prompts one to question, how could a species so important to us be dying at such a rapid rate, and are we to blame? Humans are a part of the problem, for example our spraying of pesticides is one cause of this decline in bees, other sources of distress include poor nutrition and diseases, all which “weaken colony health and are threatening the sustainability of the beekeeping industry” (López-Uribe, Simone-Finstrom). As a society, we need to support more research into how we can increase the health of our managed honeybees, as well as stress the importance of a healthy relationship with our bees, in order to continue the beekeeping industry and boost colony health.
Personally, I love honey bees, they are beautiful, intelligent creatures who foster the growth of the plants and flowers in my family’s garden, and inspire characters in my poems and short stories. And without those bees in that walnut tree, my life would be less sweet. This is all to say, I don’t want to see this cherished and valuable species disappear.
In the end, this experience of watching honey bees drink water and assisting them to safety, has made me realize I want to learn more about bees, so I can change my lifestyle, even in the smallest of ways, to try to help them out. So, if you wanted to learn more about this important species, I hope you did, and continue to do so. And if you happen to pass by a bee who is struggling, I hope you would try to save them from drowning.
Sources:
Nicholls, Henry. “Earth – The truth about bees.” BBC. 15 June 2015. BBC. 02 Sept. 2019 <http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150615-the-truth-about-bees>.
López-Uribe, Margarita M, and Michael Simone-Finstrom. “Special Issue: Honey Bee Research in the US: Current State and Solutions to Beekeeping Problems.” Insects. 9 Jan. 2019. MDPI. 02 Sept. 2019 <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6358869/#B1-insects-10-00022>.
Want to learn more about bees, here are some good sources of information:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6358869/
https://www.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/colony-collapse-disorder