Posts Tagged: honey bees
Drones--remotely piloted aircraft used in reconnaissance and target attacks--are in the news, but so are the other drones--male bees.
This time of year drones are as scarce as the proverbial hen's teeth. They're not needed in the hive now--just extra mouths to feed--so their sisters are booting them up. They're basically evicted, cold and shivering, from the hive.
Drones are easy to identify: big eyes, bulky body, and lumbering movements.
It's best to be a drone in the spring. When a virgin queen goes for her maiden flight, a group of drones will mate with her in the drone congregation area. The drones die shortly after mating. If they don't mate, then they'll die before winter sets in.
As Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty says: First the sisters stop feeding their brothers so they're easier to push out.
Then, out they go.
The sisters have no pity.
Drone and worker bee
Big Eyes, Bulky Body
Sage advice: If you're thinking of planting a bee friendly garden, think sage.
Also commonly known as salvia, this bee friendly plant belongs to the mint family, Lamiaceae. The Salvia genus includes some 900 species, so your choices are good.
Red, pink, blue and purple are common; yellow and white, less common. Carpenter bees and bumble bees like to pierce the tubular calyx for the sweet nectar. Sage is also a favorite of honey bees, hover flies and hummingbirds.
For a really stunning sage, check out the sapphire-blue Salvia guaranitica, native to southeastern Brazil, Paraguay and northern Argentina.
You'll see the intense blue flowers long before you notice the honey bees.
Bluest of the Blue
It's no secret that bees like sedum.
The Autumn Joy sedum (family Crassulaceae) growing in our garden is still a tight cluster of broccoli-like buds--not ready for prime time.
But don't tell the honey bees that.
Sedum is a slow bloomer, and bees poking their heads in the dusty pink buds is a common sight.
Plant sedum and they will come. (As will the butterflies, hover flies, carpenter bees and other insects.)
We are eagerly anticipating the blooms, too, in the half-acre Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, to be installed next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. It's scheduled to open to the public on Oct. 16. Nearby will be a quarter-acre wildflower walkway called "Campus Buzzway."
The gardens will be a year-around food source for bees and provide educational experiences for visitors, who can learn about honey bees and glean ideas about bee friendly plants for their own gardens.
Bring 'em on!
Honey bee on sedum
Eric Mussen, Extension apiculturist and member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty:
Honey bees can fly a distance of about two to two-and-a-half miles.
Golf courses are not bee friendly. There's no forage for bees. Water run-off, containing fertilizer, insecticides and fungicides, is toxic to bees. So, if you're a beekeeper, you know NOT to keep your bees within two and a half miles of a golf course.
With honey bees, PMS means "Parasitic Mite Syndrome."
Beekeeping is big--and getting bigger--in San Francisco. Her Majesty's Secret Beekeeper, a newly opened beekeeping supply and honey shop in San Francisco (3520 20th St.), has received requests from 450 people who wish to be notified of the next beginning beekeeper class. The store just opened June 29.
Globally, there are more than 19,500 identified species of bees; the honey bee is just one of them. California alone has some 20,000 to 30,000 species of bees.
A squash flower opens early in the morning, often before sunrise. Native pollinators known as "squash bees" specialize in nectaring squash and other members of the cucurbits family. Later in the day, the blossom closes. If you open a folded blossom, you might see a male squash bee inside. The male likes to spend the night tucked inside the folded blossom.
It's not true that a typical hive contains only one queen bee. Twenty percent of hives have a queen daughter living there as well. Bottom line: bees don't read the books that say "one queen to a hive." Eventually, the old queen leaves (she swarms, dies, or is killed by worker bees).
The bees have it.
That would be honey bees and native bees.
The UC Davis Department of Entomology has just launched its new bee biology Web site.
It's a place to learn about research, outreach, publications and upcoming courses; read the news stories, and follow the progress of the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, the half-acre bee friendly garden to be planted next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility.
The people who make it happen--the honey bee team and the native bee team--share a passion well-known in the bee world.
The Web site also includes a kids' zone, links, photo gallery, and FAQs (how to remove stings and swarms, for example).
It wouldn't be a Web site without showcasing the work of Harry Hyde Laidlaw Jr., the Houston-born bee geneticist (1907-2003) whose name is legendary with bee genetics. Known as "the father of honey bee genetics," he served on the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty from 1947 to 1974, when he "offically" retired.
Officially he did, but unofficially he didn't.
The emeritus professor continued his research and outreach programs, publishing his last scientific paper at age 87 and his last book at 90. He died at age 96 at his home in Davis.Harry Hyde Laidlaw Jr. left a legacy of global influence, prominence and utmost dedication. The people he trained continue to work at the Laidlaw facility--and at other universities--carrying on his legacy while creating their own.
Working the Bees