Welcome to the first of five infopods all about bees. That’s far too few to share with you just how unbelievably sacred these tiny beings are, but enough to give you bearing on the challenges they face, and to add to your admiration for any of the 860 Canadian species that may come to suckle a flower or two and linger in your garden this spring.
The purpose of these posts is to provide you with a consolidated source of knowledge on key topics, imbedded with links so you can fully indulge your need to know more, and also, to invite you to expand your perspective to that of a bee; take flight, laden with pollen stuffed in your socks up to the knees, humming home happily and fully onboard with your responsibility for the healthy livelihood of the hive, the forest’s biodiversity, and the abundant sustenance of all beings in a big, big world.
To Bee or to Honeybee
There are over 2,000 species of bees that we know of, spanning every continent except Antarctica, and 860 across Canada, right up to the Arctic tundra. 75% of the world’s crops, the animal food chain, plant biodiversity, soil regeneration, and more of the fundamental systems that thrive on nature’s abundance rely on bees and other pollinators to maintain its fragile balance. Yet, most of us only know about one species, Apis mellifera… the honeybee, and so that is where we will start.
The honeybee is common to Europe, Africa and parts of Asia and is not native to North America. It was first brought over in the 17th century for its unique ability to make honey. Its manner of nesting together in colonies makes it easy to domesticate and observe, and so it was soon adopted as a symbol of the industrious advancements of The New World and the sweet rewards of hard work. Well deserved when you consider a honeybee makes only one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime and each Canadian consumes an average of 2.2 lbs of honey per year.
Aside from producing our honey, this one species of bees is also responsible for the success of the more than 1,000 plants grown for food, spices, beverages, medicines and fibers that require pollination. Without the help of bees, the world would be without chocolate, coffee, peaches, almonds, tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries, apples, pumpkins, melons, vanilla and many other fruits, nuts and vegetables.
The honeybee is big business in Canada, where they are bred and fed as livestock. Hauled by the billions across the country on semi-trailers from farm to farm, one crop to the next, from early spring to late summer, timed to pollinate the peak flowering of the crops that sustain our food, our exports, livestock’s feed, many of the fabrics we wear and oils we consume.
Currently, there is an unbridled gap between demand and supply world-over, as pollinator-dependent crops increase (300% over 50 years) and the abundance and diversity of pollinators decrease. Our capacity to replace the ones that die each year has reached its limit. Areas of China are already using the only other method we know of, pollination by hand which is far more time-consuming and far more damaging to the plants.
The Challenges Facing Honeybees and Native Pollinators
You see, 35% of honeybee colonies in Canada die each year, likely caused by exposure to pesticides. We spent $9,511,969 importing 235,111 queen honeybees this past spring in Canada, to replace bee colonies lost last winter. One queen for each colony of 40,000 to 60,000 bees represents more than a billion bees dead before their time. Colonies are meant to live on and replace their own queens after 3 years or more. The average lifespan of the worker bee that does survive is half as long as it was 50 years ago.
It is sad, the life of the honeybee. Still, domestication has its perks, instant housing kept at a breezy temperature, well-fed and medicated against harmful bacteria and parasites over the winter, domestic honeybees have an excellent chance of seeing their colony thrive with the first blooms of the coming spring.
Far more disturbing is the reality faced by our precious wild native bumblebees, sweat bees, mining bees, cuckoo bees, leafcutter bees and cellophane bees, and other pollinators like butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, bats, moths and more, which freely pollinate the same fields as well as the natural habitats they come from.
Faster, bigger and stronger, honeybees by the millions outcompete native bees, crop after crop, year after year, scaring the delicate flowers until they cannot reproduce, leaving no food for others, and carrying diseases to which local pollinators have no immunity defense. Unlike the honeybee, our native bees, once lost, can never be replaced.
Stay Tuned for More Unbeelievable Stories
Stay with us as we continue this series, uncovering more about the sacred lives of bees and their irreplaceable role in our world. Each infopod will bring us deeper into their world and closer to understanding why the health of these tiny beings is essential for us all.
