Importance of Bees

The Importance of Bees
 

Bees produce honey and more importantly, they pollinate agricultural crops such as almonds, apples, avocados, blueberries, cantaloupes, cherries, cranberries, cucumbers, sunflowers, and watermelons. These are only a few of the 130 crops bees pollinate. Also, the bees produce wax, honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly, and venom that contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to the economy annually. Without their pollination of crops, we would have none of these crops. It is estimated that one-third of the human diet comes from food that is pollinated by insects. Also, 80 percent of these pollinated foods are produced by honey bees (according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture). Bees pollinate fruits, vegetables, nuts, ornamental, and fiber crops in the U.S. According to Cornell University, the honey bees contribute $14.6 billion to the U.S. agriculture from their pollination.

There are more than 3,500 species of bees in North America that can pollinate crops as well or better than honey bees, and they are called pollen or native bees. There are actually many advantages of pollen bees over honey bees: 1) they are active in the spring before honey bees are; 2) they provide more efficient pollination because they stay in a crop rather than fly between them; They also provide better pollination because they fly quicker and can pollinate crops in less time. 3) Female and Male pollen bees pollinate crops, whereas only female honey bees pollinate, not male; 4 and 5) Pollen bee stings are mild and they don’t get disoriented in greenhouses.

Dr. Hachiro Shimanuki (head of the USDA Bee Research Lab in Beltsville, Maryland) found and charted that there was a 25 percent decline in the number of honey bees over the last ten years. He states that this decline of honey bees is a result of pesticide use, habitat destruction, and Varroa mites. Pollen bees have also declined as a result of pesticide use, but they are unaffected by mites.

Pollination occurs when pollen is transferred from the anther of one flower to the stigma of a second flower. The pollen and pistil must be from different plants, so the way pollination occurs is mainly by bees. Pollination allows fertilization to occur. Fertilization is the combination of nuclei from a pollen grain with the nuclei of the ovule of a flower, and it allows flowers to produce seeds.

David Hackenberg, a veteran beekeeper, made all the scientists aware of the decline of honey bees. One day, last October, he left 400 hives in a field and when he came back, only 36 colonies remained. This raised a major alarm to scientists. The problem of bee decline has been identified in 35 states. Some scientists that have done research on this issue include Dr. Hachiro Shimanuki (head of the USDA Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland), Dr. Suzanne Betra, and Dr. Peter Kevan.
 

The loss of bees is called CCD, or “Colony Collapse Disorder.” It is a very sudden loss of bees that prevents the bee keepers from preventing the bee decline. When a hive dies as a result of CCD, the hive is not immediately invaded by pests. This is causing many beekeepers and scientists to think that some sort of chemical is preventing the pests from invading the hives, and most likely killed the bees in the first place.