Although the environment of pavement and bricks may separate much of campus from the natural world, one of the hallmarks of the University is it’s support of the natural environment. Along with veterinarian and agriculture programs, bees are also a topic of research interest. Frequently, these insects are overlooked in their significance to agriculture and the local economy, yet there are select individuals on campus that have dedicated much of their time to educating students about bees.
John Ambrose first came to the University decades ago and taught entomology up until recently, before he became Interim Dean in the Division of Undergraduate Programs. Nevertheless, Ambrose continues to teach a course on his passion, beekeeping. He has a holistic viewpoint on the importance of bees in our society.
“I didn’t want to develop a course just on beekeeping,” Ambrose said. “What I wanted to do was introduce students to honeybees in several different ways. One is from an agricultural standpoint, another focuses on bees in the sense as a research animal, and then additionally I want to explain the historical interaction between humans and bees.”
Since prehistory, man has maintained a strong relation with honeybees and much of this influence has had an impact on culture, according to Ambrose.
“Honey was the first sweetener,” Ambrose explained. “Many ancient cultures made fermented drinks from honey. Beeswax is important too. Early man relied on beeswax. This kinship with man, as a food source, light source, and alcohol source, really shows a profound influence of bees on the development of our culture.”
Ambrose said the most important contribution that bees have made to society is pollination. Every third bite of food comes from the product of honeybee pollination.
Despite our reliance on honeybees, a new problem with honeybee colony collapse disorder (CCD) has become a concern for beekeepers throughout the nation, Ambrose said. Within the past few years, a fourth of all the colonies in the US have perished, yet the causes vary in several ways.
“In the early 80s, we experienced a problem with tracheal mites, which are little mites that attacked the breathing tubes of bees and this problem killed about half of our bees in the US,” Ambrose said.
Following the tracheal mite came the Varroa mite, which did inflict damage to honeybee populations in the U.S. In response to the parasitic outbreak, mainstream beekeepers for the first time started to use pesticides to target the Varroa mites.
Ambrose said, “They were in the situation that all their bees were going to die, so they definitely had to break with tradition.”
American honeybees are generally more vulnerable to these types of epidemics due to the small gene pool of American bees, according to Ambrose. Honeybees are not indigenous to the Americas, so Europeans introduced the pollinators to the New World mainly for the purpose of honey production. However, since these bee colonies were transported on ships, the amount of bees that came from Europe was relatively small.
In basic genetics, the smaller the gene pool the more likely the species is not to respond well to adverse conditions. The problem with Africanized bees, or killer bees, is that they have exacerbated the lack of diversity in the honeybee gene pool. Interestingly, Africanized honeybees are of the same species of European and American honeybees, yet express a dominant behavioral trait that is more defensive.
The problem of CCD today is a serious threat to the nation’s agricultural economy, yet the government has not investigated deeply into the issue, according to Ambrose. The mysterious cause of the loss of a million of the nation’s bee colonies has spurred much debate and conspiracy theories. Regardless of the cause of the problem, however, its exaggerated effects will have tremendous repercussions for American agriculture. U.S. reliance on honeybee pollination has increased so much that agriculture business relies on migratory pollinators to ship bees to the fruit and vegetable-producing capitals.
“Due to this demand, there is a big business that will travel from Florida, to Texas, to California, or up and down the east coast to pollinate crops,” Ambrose said. “In California where most of our almonds are grown, a million and a half hives are moved into the state to pollinate the trees. That’s nearly half of the country’s production for just one product.”
Luckily, North Carolina has not been tremendously affected by CCD. Beekeeper Berry Hines comes to the Raleigh Farmers’ Market to sell his variety of honeys.
“I’ve been really blessed in the sense that I have not experienced any problems with CCD,” Hines remarked in relief. “The main thing that I have found is that I have to be more attentive and I have been making sure to keep my hives strong.”
Hines’ beekeeping business, called Bee Blessed Pure Honey, not only produces raw unfiltered honey, but also works with farmers across North Carolina to pollinate seasonal crops.
“I contract with farmers,” Hines said. “My bees serve a dual purpose. For example, in the White Lake area there are a lot of blueberries. Now sometimes my bees will make blueberry honey. They will bring it in. They’re not going to pass up an opportunity on that nectar, that’s just the way bees are. Bees are great at finding that source, like gallberry or blueberry, and once they find it, they are like planes coming and going from LaGuardia Airport.”
In order to make sure that his colonies stay strong, Hines feeds his bees protein supplements that help the hives survive the winters in larger numbers.
“One of the misconceptions that people have is that bees only eat sweet things,” Hines explained. “However, pollen is a big part. We call it beebread. That’s what they really eat. Pollen has a lot of vitamins in it, except omega threes.”
Despite the CCD concern, Hines surprisingly produced more honey than expected this season.
“Raw and unfiltered honey is good honey,” Hines said. “That’s how I produce it. On a good honey flow earlier this year, I had a hive produce 90 pounds of honey.” The average is about 30-40 pounds. “This year I think we had an excellent honey flow.”
