The Plight of the Honeybees
by Val Whitmyre, U.C. Master Gardener

Last November I was delighted to hear honeybees buzzing around a scented species camellia in my garden. The day was balmy, and the bees were intent on gathering pollen from the fragrant white flowers.
I hadn't heard this once-familiar sound for a long time. Honeybees have been scarce in the Napa Valley, as well as all of California, for decades. I just hadn't noticed.
This prompted me to do some detective work, and I found the honeybee to be a fascinating subject.
Brought from Britain with early colonists, the honeybees (Apis mellifera) supplied honey, of course, but also the wax needed for candlelight. They took up residence in hollowed logs in forests. In those days, there were abundant wildflowers and forests that provided food and homes for the bees. Now the forests and wildflowers have been replaced by cities and concrete.
In the United States, 80 percent of the pollinated foods we eat gets help from honeybees. Over 100 kinds of crops benefit from honeybee pollination.
There are three kinds of bees in each hive. The queen bee is larger than the others and spends her whole life, three to four years, laying two thousand eggs a day and producing a hormonal substance called pheromone.
The drone bees are males and their only job is to mate with the queen. She mates only a few times during her life, so most of the drones just hang around until they are forced from the hive in the autumn to starve to death. They have no stingers and are not equipped to forage for food.
The worker bees are all female and can literally work themselves to death. There can be 20,000 to 40,000 worker bees in each hive. Their daunting responsibilities include feeding the queen, drones and larvae; forming the hexagonal hive; making the honey; cleaning the hive; and gathering nectar and pollen.
Worker bees forage for nectar from a variety of flowers. While doing this, their hairy little bodies become covered with pollen. They have special sacs on their back legs that transport pollen back to the hive.
Worker bees also gather a substance called propolis, a resin found in forest trees, which they use to seal cracks in the hive. Pollen supplies protein for the bees, and nectar provides them with carbohydrates.
The worker makes honey by drinking as much nectar (sugary water) as she can, then transferring it to another worker's tongue. There, most of the water is evaporated and the nectar becomes honey which is deposited into a cell. The worker also fans her wings to help in the evaporation.
After the queen lays an egg, it is deposited into a hive cell where it goes through a complete metamorphosis, from egg to larvae to pupa to adult bee, in about 24 days.
Besides being home to all these bees, the hive has sections just for the larvae, sections for storing pollen, and other areas for storing the honey. The worker bees cap each cell as it is filled.
The pheromone produced by the queen is secreted by the worker bees who then become totally disinterested in reproduction. When would they find time?
Bees and flowers are symbiotic. Flowers display bright colors and produce fragrances that entice bees. In turn, worker bees secrete their scent into the flowers, then return to the hive and perform a dance that tells the others where the flowers are located.
The honeybee lifestyle seems perfectly organized. Indeed, in the last 30 million years, the structure of honeybee activity has not changed. But these valuable bees are now plagued with parasitic mites that weaken the hive and kill its occupants, and with diseases that decimate the hives.
We also kill bees in spring and summer by spraying broad-spectrum pesticides and herbicides. Growers have had to import bees from as far away as Australia, driving up costs, but without the bees there would be no fruits and vegetables.
Planting bee-friendly gardens is now a necessity. Consider planting flowers rich in nectar and pollen that bloom at the same time. Bees can't see the color red, but they like all other bright colors. Red flowers are pollinated by birds, butterflies, bats and wind.
You needn't worry about bee stings. Bees haven't got the time to think about stinging. They only sting when they are diverted from foraging or when the hive is threatened.
Napa County Master Gardeners are now as busy as bees preparing some of their gardens for a public tour in June. We'll keep you posted.