July 10, 2008
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| Honey bee drinking water at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. Click to enlarge. (Photos by Kathy Keatley Garvey) |
DAVIS—The record-breaking triple-digit temperatures are not only wreaking havoc on humans, but on honey bees.
On days when temperatures exceed 100 degrees, bees collect more water to cool the hive to protect the brood (immature bees) and ward against a meltdown, said University of California, Davis bee specialist Susan Cobey, “Bees reduce their flight activity for nectar and pollen, but collect more water. They spread droplets of water and then fan their wings to ventilate and cool the hive.”
“When the heat is really intense, the worker bees rev up the fanning and water circulation to prevent comb meltdown and death of the brood (immature bees),” said Cobey, a bee breeder and geneticist at the Harry H. Laidlaw Honey Bee Research Facility, part of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
“Older bees will sometimes go outside the hive and sit in front of the hive and form bee beards until the heat relents,” she said.
Beekeepers know to locate their hives in shade and near ample water, such as a drippy faucet, Cobey said. “Beekeepers will often crack a hive to provide more air flow and if the bees don’t like it (the hole), they’ll plug it with propolis (plant resins collected by bees that serve as a cement or bee glue).”
Entomologist Lynn Kimsey, chair of the Department of Entomology and director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, said that in intense heat, honey bees desperately need more water to cool down the hive. “They have to keep the interior temperature of the hive around 92 to 94. That’s a real problem when the temperature outside reaches 100 or 105 or more.”
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Sue Cobey |
“You’ll see honey bees collecting water everywhere, from around leaky faucets, and in puddles, bird baths, fish ponds and swimming pools--any where there’s water,” Kimsey said.
Worker bees do all the work to maintain the hive. In addition to gathering nectar, pollen, propolis and water, they serve as air conditioners, architects, construction workers, nurses, dancers, guards, and undertakers, Cobey said.
But unlike the proverbial postman (“Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds”), bees don’t work in foul weather: in rain, heavy fog, or in a wind of more than 15 miles per hour, Cobey said. “And they don’t like the heat.”
Last winter the nation’s beekeepers lost about one-third of their bee population due to a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder, in which bees mysteriously abandon their hives. Cooperative Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology said that CCD is probably the result of multiple factors, including malnutrition, pesticides, diseases, parasites and stress.
“The beekeeping industry is crucial to California’s $42 billion agricultural economy,” said Kimsey, who is rebuilding the bee biology program after faculty retirements and budgetary constraints decimated much of the program in the 1990s. “More than 90 different crops, with a total value exceeding $6 billion, require pollination. One-third of the food in our diet is pollinated by bees.”
Bees pollinate almonds, alfalfa, sunflowers, tree fruits and many other crops. California’s almond production soared this year to 740,000 acres, requiring two hives per acre.
California accounts for $6 billion of the nation’s $16 billion-pollination industry, said Mussen, who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 1976. California also accounts for half of the nation’s sales of queen-and-packaged-bees stock, he said. “And we continually rank among the top four honey-producing states, along with North Dakota, South Dakota and Florida.”
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| Bees gathering around faucet. Click to enlarge. |
The mission of the 76-year-old Harry Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, one of the oldest honey bee research facilities in the country, is to meet the needs of California’s multibillion dollar agricultural industry and to address the nation’s growing concern about bee health and the declining bee population.
The 8,200-square-foot Laidlaw bee biology facility is home to laboratories, a honey bee food processing room, a large multipurpose room, glassed observation hives, offices and a wood shop.
The faculty and staff include Mussen; Cobey; Robbin Thorp, professor emeritus and a native bee pollinator specialist; and Kim Fondrk, manager of a noted bee stock developed by former UC Davis bee geneticist Robert Page, now at Arizona State University. “The specially selected high and low pollen hoarding genetic stock spanning 32 generations is the most studied and most valued research stock ever,” Page said. The stock arrived back at UC Davis in February.
Also doing research at the Laidlaw facility is affiliate Claire Kremen, a UC Berkeley conservation biologist specializing in native bee pollinators.
Concerned about the declining bee population, Häagen-Dazs launched a national campaign Feb. 19 to create awareness for the plight of the honey bee and to support research at UC Davis and Pennsylvania State University. Häagen-Dazs gifted UC Davis with $100,000 to support sustainable pollination research, target colony collapse disorder and fund a postdoctoral research fellow. The premier ice cream company also launched a Web site. Nearly 40 percent of Häagen-Dazs brand ice cream flavors are linked to fruits and nuts pollinated by bees.
Contributions to UC Davis Honey Bee Research Facility can be made online.
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--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
