Bees in the News (plus BONUS industrialization rant)

One of my favorite Internet habits is to check the visual journalism blog of the New York Times, called Lens.  Their February 10th "Pictures of the Day" post featured the following image of a St. Haralampie celebration in Bulgaria, complete with mentions of honey, jars and beekeepers!

Screen shot of the blog post.

Aside from this being a beautiful, honey-toned photograph, the image is remarkable in that it captures a ritual that seems exotic and foreign to many onlookers in the United States.  That insects and their sticky product can be cause for religious celebration inspires curiosity in us and yields a perception of awe that is not necessarily rooted in empathetic understanding.  I believe that, especially after today's lecture on commercial honey and the industrialization of honey/pollination, it is important to note that our efficiency-driven, capitalist market view of the precious process that is honey production strips the bee of its dignity.  Instead we should revere the honey bee and (while we're at it) sanctify the craft of apiarists, as the Orthodox Christians in Bulgaria do with their patron saint of beekeepers.

As it stands now, bees are herded en mass like cattle to the almond orchards of California in an act that defies their natural instinct for flight and flower diversification.  They are a mechanism of production in a market with high demand, whose consumers perhaps do not understand the origin increasing costs.  I used to naively think that almonds were expensive because they were rare, when in fact, there are miles and miles of almond-producing trees whose price arises from the necessary inputs of the mono-culture crop.  

One of my classmates illustrated this point excellently using the allegory of industrial crop fertilizer being like mass pollinator bee rental.  When you have farmland with plants that are nearly genetically identical (i.e. only almond trees, no other plants), the ecosystem must work harder to maintain highly fertile production (since diversity = awesome), so you need (artificial, usually) fertilizer.  Likewise, if we have orchards of purely almond trees, there is no way bees can naturally fertilize them (they would get bored, weaken from lack of nectar/pollen diversity, etc.), so half the U.S. population of bees must be shipped in to sustain the current system.  As with the artificial fertilizer problem, however, this is not working.  Bees are dying, and the population must be sustainably brought up in the West instead of humans relying on shipping them across the country.

While it seems that capitalists and economists hate bees, the silver lining for me has been that I recently found out The Royal Economic Society of the United Kingdom has a BEE in their logo!  Check it out:

I couldn't find information about the exact meaning or purpose behind the logo itself, but I found that their July 2008 newsletter featured an interview with an Adam Smith expert that mentions bee imagery in a statue of Mr. Smith.  Here is the relevant excerpt (skip to brown):

JS: : Taking this last point, can we examine the statue in greater detail? I notice that you have embodied a number of artifacts or tools on sections of the statue which have individual significance as far as the work of Smith is concerned; eg the plough, the bee hive, the globe, Smith’s academic gown, the bales of corn and of course Smith’s covered hand over the globe — the ‘invisible hand’ of the market.

AS: Yes. If we take the hive first. The hive concept, which is borrowed freely from Bernard Mandeville’s ‘The Fable of the Bees’, is symbolic of numerous elements of Adam Smith
— a monumental figure On the 4th of July on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh the long-awaited statue to Adam Smith was unveiled. Below is an account of an interview that John Struthers of the University of the West of Scotland held with the Sculptor Professor Alexander Stoddart. Professor Stoddart is widely regarded as Scotland's most renowned monumental sculptor and is based at the Paisley campus of the university where he is also an Honorary Professor of Arts and Media. The statue was unveiled by Nobel Laureate Professor Vernon L Smith.14
Smith’s contributions; eg The famous pin factory and the concept of the division of labour — just like a bee hive full of hard work and productivity. The ‘workers’ are akin to the bees in the hive — industrious, proud, and working collectively — a venerable ‘maelstrom of economic activity’. This is where we get the term ‘hive of industry’ from. Around the hive are several banding tapes. These represent, respect for property, and respect for persons. In fact they represent the Rule of Law or respect for property rights which is now recognised as an essential part of Smith’s economic philosophy. Not a stifling or stultifying bureaucracy, but an enabling and benevolent authority or government — minimum government in fact.

Well, that's all I've been thinking of for now, folks.  Thanks for reading!

Diana

Information Sources:

Picture Post: Praise bee - a mass for St. Haralambos by Rob Sharp for The Independent

Happy St. Haralampi Day by Turlough for Propolis 

Royal Economic Society Newsletter Issue 142 (pdf)

Stand Aside, California Wine

Where does Cali get all its cash? Wine, right? Nope, it turns out that California's #1 horiticultural export is almonds! That's right, in this great piece in the Guardian, Allison Benjamin writes that in 2007 almonds earned the state of California, "more than $1.9bn, double the revenue from its Napa Valley vineyards." Ok, clearly almonds are a defining feature of California's landscape and economy.

And almonds needs bees. Bees come from far and wide to help California pollinate their colossal almond crop. But with colony collapse and the rest of the erratic weather shaking planet earth, bees are harder and harder to come by. Apparently this year is crazy than ever - the bee deficit is driving almond prices up. The Daily Green reported last week that the price of renting a colony for Cali is through the rough. "Three weeks ago if you asked $150 rent for colony you'd be laughed right out of the almond orchard. Today, $200 isn't an uncommon offer, and the line goes out to the parking lot for growers wanting to pay that amount."

How much does colony rental factor into almond prices? Check this out. The biggest almond producer in the world, Paramount Farming, was featured in the Economist. The president of the company reported that renting bees now makes up 15% of the total cost of the company's costs. If bees continue to disappear, we'll soon be paying something short of the price of gold for all our favorite fruit and nut crops.

Special Valentine Post: Bee Pickup Lines!

Gimme a buzz and I'll bee yours.


Bee mine.
Bee my love.
Bee my drone.
Bee my honey.
Bee my queen.




Pollinate me.


Honey, I'm stuck on you (CUZ I'M COVERED IN HONEY).


You're bee-utiful.


My heart beeats for you.


You're sweeter than honey (not true, nothing is).


Honey, you're the bee's knees!


Honey, your thorax is huge!


This might sting...


Every day with you is like a honeymoon.

Wanna do the waggle dance?


If you were a bee, I'd keep you!


You're so hot, you make my colony collapse!


I don't think you're ready for my royal jelly.


How 'bout we get together and cross pollinate?

Bees in Popular Culture & Media Presentation

Check it out HERE.

My presentation documents three main trends in popular media representation of bees:

- wordplay (bee v. the letter B v. the verb form "be" v. the occasion bee [e.g. spelling bee])

- bee, honey, pollination, etc. in analogies for romance or sex

- anthropomorphic representations of bees and bee life (and the inaccuracies or misunderstandings that result)

"They flyin' out of the box...he ain't got the queen yet"

Here’s a little gem I found on youtube about a Louisiana woman who found a swarm of bees (or as she says, “this brown stuff all over my driver’s side window”) on her car and called 911.

While this might seem like a pretty dangerous situation, as Jesalyn told us in class and like Danny talked about in his presentation, bees aren’t likely to sting when they’re swarming beecause they don’t have a hive to protect and defend. Like you can see in Diana’s post below, it’s possible to touch bees when they’re swarming, like the guy who just grabs the handful on the tree, but most people are afraid of them anyway. Who ever thought a trip to Marshalls could end so badly?!

Another reason that a bee might be reluctant to sting you for no reason is beecause it will kill her. A honey bee has a barbed stinger which will stay in the skin if you are stung and when she flies away, she’ll tear her abdomen. Here’s a video of that happening:

One crazy thing about bees is that, as we discussed in class on Thursday, the bees in a hive essentially act as one organism instead of fifty-thousand or so different creatures. Bees are eusocial and act out of the interests of the entire hive instead of individual interests. One reason for this collaboration is the queen bee and the pheromones she emits—like Joey talked about in his presentation, bees put out certain scents which help them communicate to accomplish all of their honey-making tasks and also to help defend their precious hive. For example, bees emit an alarm pheromone (which Jesalyn says smells like bananas) which will alert other bees if one is endangered and they will come to her aid. So basically, if a bee needs to, she will sting and die for her hive without hesitation. Pretty wild.

Here’s a third video about the waggle dance that maybe isn’t the most engaging but is still crazy. It’s about using vector calculus to communicate. Though that may not be entirely accurate, bees would probably do better in calculus than I did!

Putting the "HERO" in PHEROMONES and "WARM" in "SWARM"

Honey bees came over, and bears were like, this is really awesome.
--- Jesalyn


Yesterday Joey gave us a mini-lecture on bee pheromones that clarified one of the questions that came up during my queen bee presentation.  I couldn't explain how drones knew when the virgin queen bee was on her inaugural mating flight.  The answer?


PHEROMONES.


So Joey/Pheromone Hero explained that many of the seemingly random or instinctive behaviors of bees are actually carried out using an odor communication system.  While I presumed they just magically knew what to do and when, bees are actually chatting all the time, in a language we've come to learn much about (even to the point where scientists have created artificial pheromones).  They have pheromones in all varieties and for uses like alarming other bees, deterring puberty, and other insane/useful purposes.  


I could see how it would be easy to exploit human knowledge of pheromones, as we saw in Danny's presentation on swarms.  How they get humans to have "bee beards" is using a necklace with a compartment for the queen bee.  Once the queen is captured in said necklace, you can place it around your neck and the bees will swarm around it, attracted to their fearless leader.  It's pretty awesome, but I can't imagine that Macy's is dying to carry queen bee necklaces or bee beards any time soon, though.  



Here's a video that demonstrates (with kooky Canadian narration) how the bee beard is done.


Some remarkable things I learned about swarming from Danny is that a scout bee will check out potential hives then come back and try to persuade the colony to move there with much movement.  Depending on how excitedly he beats his wings and moves around, the colony decides whether to follow him.  It's pretty funny to imagine the human equivalent of this, as board rooms or other venues where "pitches" are made would be hilarious with a dancing businessperson.  Lots of them would likely be unsuccessful.


THEN at one point in his presentation we watched The Most Dramatic YouTube Video Ever.  Okay, so it's actually just a hand and some bees, but the person in the video a) recorded the incredibly loud sound of a swarm and b) played with the bees like they were mounds of Play-Doh.  I KID YOU NOT.  You have to see it to believe it:






Wild, eh?  My favorite part is the camera-hogging bee who steals the spotlight.


Another highlight of the mini-lectures was talking about a man who ran with a swarm, causing NPR to suggest it could become an extreme sport.  I imagine the bees would get annoyed at having something fleshy and terrestrial trying to hang out with them, but maybe not.  I'd really like to see someone in our class try this.  Any takers?  I'll be ready with my camera.

Queen Bee Presentation by Diana Iglesias

Queen Bee on Prezi

Works Cited

"Curriculum Activities for Grades 1-3." Canadian Honey. Canadian Honey Council, 2011. Web. 19 Jan. 2011. http://www.honeycouncil.ca/index.php/canadianhoney_teachers

Kathy Keatley Garvey. “If I Had a Hammer...” Bug Squad. Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California.. Web. 19 Jan. 2011. http://ucanr.org/blogs/bugsquad/index.cfm?tagname=queen%20bee

"Queen Bee." Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation, Inc., 3 Jan. 2011. Web. 19 Jan. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_bee

The Buzz

This blog is the collaborative work of a class at UNC-Chapel Hill. The course is part of the C-START (Carolina Students Taking Academic Responsibility through Teaching) program, and is a one-hour course taught by Jesalyn Keziah, a Senior Undergraduate.

The course is highly interactive and will incorporate multiple methods of approach. Instead of turning in assignments by paper, we will be posting reflections, thoughts, observations, and interesting bee-related links to this blog. We hope that this will allow us a new means of communication and of spreading information about a very important species!

The course description is as follows:

Bees are more than honey producing, stinging creatures...they are the glue (or, propolis, if you will) that ties together the production and genetic diversity of many of the plants that make up our natural environment. One in every three bites of food that we eat comes from plants that are pollinated by bees. Albert Einstein famously quoted that if the bees go extinct, human life will not be able to sustain itself for more than 6 years. And scarily, the past few years have seen colonies worldwide dying off in astonishing numbers in a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder. In this course, we will learn about the history of bees, their behind-the-scenes ties to our everyday life, past and present research of disease, agrochemical threats, and other factors in the CCD phenomenon, and the steps we as a community can take to save our bees--and ultimately, ourselves.

"Each observer, according to the color of his mind and the background of his experience, sees in this insect commonwealth individual facets of a many-sided whole. The moralist, the philosopher, the artist, the engineer, the poet, the political scientist; all have contemplated the bees with a sense of humility and awe. Even the most unimaginative of men, if he understands the things he sees, must find in the complex civilization of the hive a sense of lasting wonder. "

-- Edwin Way Teale, The Golden Throng

This course offers an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the bee and her place in our biology textbooks, agricultural system, poetry, and backyard garden. To do so, we will employ a number of resources, including selected passages from literature, peer-reviewed scientific research, film clips, conversations with local beekeepers, observation in floral areas of campus, a honey tasting competition, and most importantly, the collective knowledge and memory of the class.

The course will be highly interactive, and it is expected that the classroom culture will be one of community, collaboration, and participation. The classroom interaction will vary widely, including group activities, outside speakers, classroom discussions, and will encompass activities tuned to different learning styles and avenues of engagement.

Thanks for reading!