OUR HONEY BEE

Bees and Humans

Humans have been involved with honey-bees for over 8,000 years. In early times men climbed cliffs and trees to obtain honey comb. This can be seen in cave and rock paintings from France, Spain and Australia. In the warmer parts of the world early man generally just came across colonies of bees. When he did this we can call ancient man a Gatherer. In colder areas man knew he had to 'stock up' for winter and went looking for colonies and their honey. When he did this we can call him a Hunter.

The Egyptians, however, made simple clay tubes for their bees to live in and could be considered the 'first' beekeepers. They also made specialized tools to help them in their bee-keeping. They practiced 'migratory bee-keeping' as they moved their colonies in boats down the Nile following the flowering of crops. Carvings of bees appear in Egyptian cartouches and honey and wax were both important in the Egyptian culture.

The ancient Greeks were also skilled bee-keepers and several Greek writers (Aristotle, Virgil, Varro, Columella) wrote about beekeeping and the importance of bees to farming. Other ancient cultures like the Chinese and Mayan also kept bees. Two thousand years ago in North Eastern Europe bees were kept in wicker skeps -a sort of upside down basket. Further to the east bees were farmed in holes in trees and later hollow logs on the ground. However, when cereals became more common skeps were then made of straw rather than wicker. Bees kept in skeps could moved about more easily and traded.

The Romans seem to have had many different types of bee hives but this was probably because their vast empire contained many different areas with different bee-keeping cultures. When the Romans invaded Britain they left bee-keepers alone so the Britons continued skep beekeeping. By now people had realised that honey-bees were important for certain food crops. In the mid 1800s the basic design of the modern beehive had been developed and we gave up skep bee-keeping.

Today we know much more about honey bees than our ancestors did and how they contribute to our food production as well as to our environment. However, there are still many things that scientists and bee-keepers don't understand about them. Amateur beekeepers (about 44,000 in the UK) are far more numerous than professionals (about 300) and their observations of bees are important to us learning more about the honey bee. There are about 265 different kinds of bees in Britain but only one honey bee -- Apis mellifera

Our honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a colonial bee living in large colonies of 40,000 to 80,000 bees. There are three castes (types) of bee in a colony. The worker, queen. and drone.

Bees and food

For over 60 million years bees and flowering plants have evolved together making them dependant upon each other --bees obtain nectar and pollen from plants and the plants become pollinated in return. Pollination is the transfer of pollen (male sex cells) to the female part of the plant which houses the female sex cells. When a plant has been successfully pollinated it sends a visual signal to the bee that it has been pollinated meaning 'don't bother coming again'. Most of these signals are in the ultra violet spectrum and are invisible to the human eye. Much of our food depends on pollination which is really a byproduct of the bee searching for nectar from the flower. Honey-bees are very good at pollinating crops (40,000 to 80,000 bees per hive) but some other insects are also important: Bumble bees, hover-flies, moths, butterflies. Unfortunately, like the honey-bee, all these insects are under threat.

We need pollination to produce many foods. Coffee, melon, cucumber, strawberry, apple, pear, cherry, plum, peach, black and red currants, grapes, blackberry, etc. are formed on the plant but pollination also produces seeds for us to plant to grow for food e.g. onion, celery, sugar beet, oilseed rape, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, sprouts, carrot, soya bean, sun-flower, runner beans, broad beans etc.. Because of their importance as pollinators, honey-bees provide us with one mouthful of food in every three and without them our diet would be very poor. We are familiar with many foods but look on the label of many other things like sauces and you will find ingredients that have depended on bee pollination. Worldwide 64% of our food is bee pollinated. In Europe 4000 different vegetables exist because of bee pollination.

Value of bees. Generally insect pollinated crops have a high value and effective pollination results in higher yields. Worldwide this is worth £20-50 billion. In Britain it is estimated to be worth £1 billion to the retail trade. In Britain we import 40% of our food so maintaining our own pollinators is important otherwise we will have to import more and pay more for our food. Often we forget the value of pollinators to our landscape. Many of our trees and wild flowers would be absent from the countryside without pollinators and as a result much of our wild life would have less food and so be adversely affected.

Things which affect pollinator numbers. Britain, between 1985 and 2008, lost 54% of its honey-bee population. The losses vary from year to year but in East Yorkshire, 2015/16, we lost 36.2%. of our honey-bee colonies. It is not always easy to unravel the exact causes of these losses and there could be several factors affecting bees at the same time. However, the following are thought to have an effect, some more obvious than others.

Disease and Pests. With increased world travel and trade, diseases and pests of the honey-bee are spread more easily and more rapidly. Their sudden appearance makes it hard for the beekeeper to combat them. There are a few presently in mainland Europe which are very likely to arrive here soon.

Bee nutrition. Some plants are better for bees than others and many garden plants have been bred for colour rather than nectar and pollen. In fact not all pollen has the same nutritional value for a bee. Queen genetics and mating. These are not easy to control but they have an impact on honey-bee numbers and the nature and resilience of colonies.

Pesticides. The need to produce more food because of our growing population has lead to the greater use of pesticides. The effect of some of these on the environment is not always clear. Bees can be easily killed by either their misuse or by the way they work.

Scientific research/bee-health inspections. Reduced government support for these has made bee keeping more difficult. Awareness .

The support of bee-keepers by the general public is important and the many unregistered beekeepers should be encouraged to join a local association or at least register with BeeBase --the web site connected to the National Bee Laboratories near York. We also need more young beekeepers.

Plant some bee friendly plants and keep areas where bumble bees can nest

Farming practices. Larger fields with monocultures (one crop) have reduced hedgerows and the ability of pollinators to find food and shelter when the crop has been harvested. Climate change. This is a slow process and it will take time before we can be sure of the effect on pollinators.

Chris Coulson May 2016