Around the world, honeybees are in decline. And with the steady journey south of the varroa mite, we in the South will soon need to take action to keep things buzzing along. Janice Murphy finds out we can all help.
For two summers now, I have been looking for honeybees on the lavender bushes. I haven't seen a single one, although there is a plentiful supply of bumblebees.
So where are the honeybees? Varroa mite, the introduced pest that has decimated northern hives, hasn't yet reached Otago, and colony collapse disorder, the bee world's equivalent of Aids, is not known in this country.
There is plenty of manuka and kanuka around our 6ha property, along with other native trees and gorse. We also have clover (red and white) and lots of other flowering plants, and we don't use pesticides. Our place should be about as bee-friendly as it gets.
So where the bloody hell are they?It's a question people are asking around the world as bee numbers continue to decline. Some blame cellphone towers. Some blame genetically modified crops. Others say the cause is more likely to be due to indiscriminate use of pesticides.
Honeybees have been kept in New Zealand for more than 150 years. They were first brought here by English missionaries and the first New Zealand beekeeping book was published as early as 1848.
Those early bees were from northern Europe, but the honeybees we see now are Apis mellifera, Italian honeybees, which were imported from the US in 1880.
Farmers and home gardeners alike rely on the trusty honeybee to pollinate their crops. Without the hardworking hive-dwellers, yields fall dramatically - Federated Farmers estimates about $3 billion of New Zealand's GDP is directly attributable to intensive pollination of crops by bees.
Indirectly, bees are also good for the soil. They pollinate the clover which in turn locks nitrogen away in our soils for other plants to use.
Recently, dressed from head to toe in white overalls, hard hat, netting and gloves, I nervously followed beekeeper Brice Horner as he showed me some of his hives.
Bees bounced off my hard hat as they divebombed us, the intruders. Others crawled on my overalls, but I just moved calmly on and if any of them gave their lives to sting me, I didn't feel a thing.
Fascinated with the working of the hives, I soon forgot to be scared of stings. The queen crawled around laying eggs, which is pretty much all she does, while a procession of worker bees - all female (the males, called drones, exist only to mate with the queen) - flew to and fro, dropping off their collected nectar and pollen.
Other workers looked after the eggs laid by the queen, carried out a bit of hive housework or made sure the honey was kept at the right temperature.
"Look behind you," said Brice as I stood sweating inside my protective gear, watching him remove honeycomb from the hives. A cloud of bees was hovering at my back, unsure of what to do since I was blocking their established flight path. I stepped aside and they buzzed back into the hive.
I was not the only problem for the flying bees. When the hive is disturbed, many bees take flight that have never before left the hive, so do not know their way around. To help them, the others gather at the hive entrance, and use their wings to fan the queen bee's pheromones out, creating a scent trail the lost bees can follow home.
It hadn't been such a good season for honey, and Brice was planning to feed his bees to make sure they had enough to live on through the winter.
The hives will depend on that stored honey. There are not many flowers in winter and even if there were, honeybees only take to the air when the temperature is more than 10degC.
When it is too cold, they gather inside the hive in a big clump, working together to maintain just the right temperature for survival and living on their honey supply.
On the other hand, if the weather is hot, the bees gather at the entrance and fan cool air into the hive to protect it.
Each hive depends on teamwork to survive and, increasingly, they also depend on a little help from us. The varroa mite will appear in the South sooner or later, and the feral bees will vanish. Only well-managed hives are likely to survive the initial onslaught of the pest, according to Biosecurity New Zealand.
So if you're fond of fruit or have a honey habit, it would pay to bee nice.
HELP THEM
Federated Farmers says the most important issue facing bees in this country is declining floral resources, which means a scarcity of pollen leading to bee malnutrition. But we can all help.
1 - Plant bee-friendly species. On any scale, from a farm to a flowerpot, you can plant trees and flowers that provide food to help the bees. Modern hybrid plants may not produce enough pollen and nectar for bees to live on. Better are heirloom, open-pollinated varieties. Whether planting trees for shelter, firewood or simply for looks, choose varieties bees can enjoy. See Federated Farmers' website www.fedfarm.org.nz/ourcampaigns for regional tree-planting guides.
2 - Be careful with that pesticide. Having lured our honey-making friends back to your garden, you don't want to murder them. Spray only when absolutely necessary. Don't spray flowering crops when bees are foraging, and be careful of spray drift.
3 - Consider keeping a hive or two. Even in urban areas, it is possible to keep a beehive without driving the neighbourhood indoors. But do check your local council's policy: the DCC says keeping bees in a residential area is not appropriate, and it will take action if there are any complaints. The National Beekeepers Association has plenty of sage advice for urban beekeepers. See www.nba.org.nz/node/52
Learn more
> Agribusiness Training has courses in beekeeping starting in July/August in Mosgiel and Invercargill. For an information pack, visit www.agribusiness.ac.nz or phone 0508 AGRIBUSINESS or 0508 247-428 and press 1 for Invercargill.
> Telford Rural Polytechnic also has a beekeeping course.
See www.telford.ac.nz/Courses/Apiculture.htm
BEE FACTS
• All worker bees are female. The only role of the male bees, known as drones, is to mate with the queen when she goes on her mating flight. The drones are fatally injured during the act of mating.
• If the queen is getting ready to swarm, she lays a special egg for a new queen. This larva is fed on royal jelly produced by the nurse bees. A queen lives on this energy-rich substance all her life.
• A honeybee's sting is barbed. If it stings, the sting remains in the victim. Thus injured, the bee will die.
• A worker bee produces less than a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.
• There are about 50,000 bees in a hive.
