All the Buzz
Professor Mbora and the art of bee maintenance
By Addison Crane
Over the past few years, you’ve probably heard about the rapid decline in honeybee populations worldwide and the impacts effect that will have on the environment and our lives. Bee populations have been decreasing since the 1940’s, but but the decline has been accelerating recently. According to the National Resource Defense Council, 42 percent of bee colonies collapsed in 2015 alone. Now, environmental organizations and consumer brands such as Burts Bee’s and General Mills have been spreading awareness of the issue to help the bees.
Whittier College Professor of Biology and Environmental Science David N. M. Mbora is particularly interested in bees. Growing up in Kenya, his neighbor was a beekeeper and that started Mbora’s fascination with bees. Now, he teaches a number of biology and environmental science classes including some about insects. When he learned about the crisis facing bees, he wanted to do what he could to help save them. “I said, ‘Oh I have a piece of land and there are trees on my land. Maybe, I should keep bees and see what happens’. So, I simply went out and bought a beehive. I put it up in one of my trees, the bees came,” says Professor Mbora, who now keeps 16 hives as a hobby on his property in Kenya.
Mbora explained that honey bees are dying because of colony collapse disorder. Colony collapse disorder seems like it would be somewhat simple to solve, a disease caused by one specific thing with at least the hope of a cure. People tend to think the bees are dying because of pesticides, climate change, or habitat fragmentation alone. But it’s more complicated than that.
“There are a lot of hypotheses that have been tested in regards to what is causing the colony collapse disorder or threatening bees. In the U.S. bee colonies have been collapsing for a long time, 50 years,” says Mbora. “The colony collapse disorder is a problem that has become more serious in the last ten [to] fifteen years. It is thought to be caused by a variety of causes, pesticides and herbicides being used crops that has been increasing and having serious consequences on the bees.”
Those aren’t the only causes of bee-population decline, says Mbora. “There are other threats, for example, the fact that bees are taken to pollinate crops that are the same — monocultures, that’s a problem for them. Also, there are parasites and other infections. Mites are a big problem for bees. Bacterial infections. Changes in climate. The point that I’m driving at is there are a lot of different threats that have come together at a time where the bees are also threatened by poisons like pesticides and neonicotinoids these are bad for the bees.”
“In the United States, bees pollinate 40 percent of the crops.”
That explains why they’re dying so rabidly, but what impact does their decline have on the environment? Honey bees pollinate crops and create honey. But, exactly how much would our lives change without them? According to Professor Mbora our lives would change drastically.
“In the United States, bees pollinate 40 percent of the crops. Vegetables and fruit cannot reproduce — we cannot get produce unless that produce has been pollinated by animals. The animal that does that is the honey bee. So, if you just extrapolate from that, it means that all other plants that require that kind of pollination will be heavily dependant on bees. So, I would say that without the bees, the produce industry would collapse. We would also lose other plants that are not food crops, that require animal pollination.”
The damage wouldn’t stop with the fruits and vegetables we eat. Bees pollinate other crops, such as alfalfa, that are also used to feed livestock and other animals. So, even more of our food would disappear. Bees even pollinate cotton, which could drastically effect the textile industry. This could potentially effect poverty rates, as the price of food and clothing would likely increase without bees.
Why are we’re so dependent on bees and why can’t other animals pollinate as well? Professor Mbora explains that, “One of the reasons… is because they live in colonies. That means that there are many of them concentrated in one place. For example, there is a huge industry that involves moving bees from one farm to the next. When they bring the colonies there, the colonies can sit and do the pollination for a week or two. So, their social organization makes it possible for them to do all of their pollination and be very efficient at it.” The “hive mind” if you will, of bee colonies helps them get the most work done as fast as possible.
The ‘hive mind’ of bee colonies helps them get the most work done as fast as possible.
Now we know how important bees are, but ios saving them a lost cause? Colony collapse disorder has too many causes and ordinary people could never help out, right?
Sort of. Like most environmental issues, the bulk of the issues could be helped by eliminating pesticides, cutting back emissions of greenhouse gases, stopping deforestation, etc. But there are a few ways everyday people can do their part. One simple way, if you have a backyard or room for a flower bed, is to plant a bee garden. According to the honeybee conservancy, doing simple things like planting specific flowers and “only using natural pesticides and fertilizers” helps them.
Another way is through beekeeping, though not all beekeeping is good. The general public has come to learn about the way some commercial beekeepers treat their bees, feeding them corn syrup instead of honey and having them pollinate “crops that have been sprayed with pesticides.” It has even come up in pop culture, with media like the 2007 film Bee Movie commenting on the exploitative practices.
Beekeeping is good for the bees. Beekeeping is good for the environment. Beekeeping is good for the beekeepers.
There is a beneficial way to do beekeeping and a bad way to do beekeeping. “It depends on how you do it and why you do it,” says Professor Mbora. “For me it’s just a hobby, but I like the honey and I like the idea that the bees can then service the environment by pollinating peoples’ crops or pollinating anything else that needs to be pollinated. Suddenly, beekeeping is beneficial for the bees themselves because, you know I have 16 hives. If those 16 hives were not there, then these bees would have to go around looking for natural openings where they could create the colonies, but I put out my hives and I wait and the bees come. They occupy the hive and they’re usually very happy there. I would like to believe many other people are keeping the bees in a good way.”
As for those who keep bees and feed them corn syrup and sugar water, Mbora likens it to feeding your pet white bread all the time. “That pet is not going to do well,” he says. “It’s better to plant flowering plants that form a variety of nectar sources for the bees. Beekeeping is good for the bees. Beekeeping is good for the environment. Beekeeping is good for the beekeepers.”
Proper beekeeping provides places for the colonies to hive where the bees won’t pollinate crops treated with pesticides. Mbora says it doesn’t take anytime for him to care for his bees, “because the way I keep the bees is as natural as possible.”
Mbora only retrieves honey from the hive when he can see it dripping. “At that point, I can take some time and go get the honey. But, I don’t have to get it. So, it doesn’t take me any time at all… Anybody who wants to learn about it and wants to take the time to make sure that this works right, can keep bees.”
The flavor of the honey, the consistency of the honey, depends on what the bees have been collecting from. Which plants are in bloom.
Professor Mbora finds beekeeping to be a compelling learning experience above all else “So far, my favorite part about beekeeping is the learning process. Because, everytime I go to collect the honey, for example, or every time I see how they’re doing, I find that there are a lot of questions, for which, I don’t have answers. So, I go to find out. This takes me to a whole different area of thinking about bees, thinking about insects. So, knowing more about how bees work. Knowing more about how bees live has been useful to me as a way to learn more about insects as a scholar this is a good thing for me.”
His other favorite part about beekeeping is the honey. “Honey is also not a bad thing at all. Honey is also interesting, because it’s part of my education. The flavor of the honey, the consistency of the honey, depends on what the bees have been collecting from. Which plants are in bloom. I had not thought about that before,” says Mbora. “Sometimes the honey is very runny, sometimes it’s very thick, sometimes it’s very dark, sometimes it’s very light. Each time the bouquet, how it smells, the flavor is slightly different. I like those flavors and fragrances. I find them very fascinating.”
