99 Problems but a Bee Ain't One

Here's a little Public Opinion piece I put together with some help from my friends, Creighton Branch and Cody O'Brien.

Killer or Keeper?

Johnny Leach kills honeybees.

In a time when the honeybee has been deemed the most important environmental cog in the nature machine, killing one seems like an atrocity. In fact, public awareness of a dwindling bee population and the repercussions of its decline has made bees more popular than ever.

Now a growing save-the-bees movement creates opportunity for philanthropy and industry alike. With roughly 80% of the world’s almonds supply produced in the U.S., these super pollinators are more valuable than ever.

This is why Leach, co-owner of 3L Apiary in Whitewright, Texas and burgeoning beekeeper who’s privy to these benefits, has contributed to the diminution of his own colonies. Several months ago, his apiary was comprised of nearly 140 hives. Today he has cut that number almost in half.

For a man who literally shares his home, inside and out, with these flying insects, murdering so many seems inconceivable. But the explanation lies in California where all the nation’s nuts are produced. And it takes a special kind of bee to work with nut cases.

Or cases of nuts. Whichever.

“They’re fucking mean,” Leach said, scooping a bee out of a mason jar filled with sweet tea before taking a drink. “And when I say they’re mean, they’re fucking mean. If you're gonna [sic] take your bees all over the country, they cannot be mean.”

Leach explained that this is his way of weeding out the aggression and controlling the temperament of the bees in his hives. Hives that he says he can haul out west, Manifest Destiny-style, to pollinate more than one million acres of California money trees.

State of Decline

But for all its popularity and profitability, the overall population has continued to decrease, and not because Leach is killing them.

In fact, honeybee population has been on a steady decline. Since 2010, the U.S. has lost at least 25% of managed honeybee colonies each year, and over 40% in five of the last seven years, according to beeinformed.org.

The driving factors of these losses include habitat loss and conversion to intensive agriculture and urbanization. There is also the use of pesticides, biological factors and climate change, according to PCT Online.

Jesse Tate, City of Burleson environmental health specialist, supported these factors, saying there are many studies linking the population decline to pesticides and loss of habitat. And Rev. Kent Heimbigner of Bishop of Burleson Backyard Beekeeping said he isn’t sure if climate change is a cause of the problem. He added that if climate change is a cause of the problem, there are certain species of bees that could actually survive in warmer weather.

Mike Lawrence, business partner to Leach at 3L, suggests yet another possibility. Lawrence thinks some hive loss could be a result of slipshod practices of amateur or careless beekeepers.

“[Honey harvesters], two to three times per year, rob all the honey from the hives and feed the bees, basically, sugar water,” he said.

Bee Savant

Many aspiring apiarists don’t possess the drive, intuition or high pain tolerance to become conscious beekeepers like Leach, whom Lawrence calls a “bee savant.”

Leach has tried to share his penchant for bee care with everyone he knows. After attempting to set up a close friend with a few starter hives early on, he learned that beekeeping doesn’t come naturally to most people.

“I tried to show him,” Leach recounted a conversation with his colleague.

“All you have to do is fucking [sic] feed them,” he told his friend. “That's all you have to do. Will you do that?”

Leach says when he went to check on the bees a few days later, he found sugar set out in a dish as if he were feeding a pet.

“The ants were kickin' [sic] ass in his yard,” Leach said.

Leach continues to try and convince people to keep hives on their properties but maintains and cares for the bees himself.

And 3L’s specific brand of beekeeping is paying off for Leach and Lawrence.

The latter says they only experience about 10% loss annually. And this is due to natural causes, like winter freeze. He attributes their success to a theory they both share in which they liken bees to athletes.

“Bees are like superior athletes,” Lawrence said. “They work until they die. They never really rest or sleep.”

“So, you take a superior athlete who’s in that great of shape and you pull all their nutrients away from them and you feed them McDonald's over a period of time,” he said. “It’s going to weaken the hive and kill off the bees.”

It’s Politics

So, while the honeybee population decline is a problem, it’s a solvable one. In fact, Heimbigner said he thinks the problem may have been a little exaggerated.

“I wish our politicians would go back and learn the difference between a problem and a crisis,” Heimbigner said.

Heimbigner suggests the issue should be handled apolitically since people on the left and right sides of politics have very different ideas of how it should be solved.

“What regulations would serve us to make us more economically prosperous?” Heimbigner said.

There are measures legislators could take to help solve the problem, but there’s also plenty that the general public can do to help. The public can research what sort of plants bees like and plant them around their property, Heimbigner said. Tate supported this solution and said people should grow plants that are not treated with neonicotinoids and plant more pollinators.

Heimbigner said people should always call beekeepers rather than exterminators when they have unwanted bees. He said he believes exterminators tend to cause more problems than they solve and that beekeepers are generally cheaper than exterminators.

Hyper Awareness

However, the general public does not seem to be unaware of this crisis. While there seems to be an acknowledgement that bees are in a state of decline, research doesn’t correspond to the amount of action taken to protect their population.

In a survey taken at The University of Texas at Arlington, 90.6% of respondents said that they know the bee population is in danger. Yet even with this level of awareness, some people continue producing pollutants like gas emissions, leaving bee populations crushed under the weight of a massive carbon foot.

Reaping What We Sow

And the squishing of the honeybees is not just a bug problem, it affects the overall quality of life for human beings more than they realize.

There are many consequences of vanishing bee colonies. The biggest impact is on crops which every earth-walking creature eats to survive. Since honeybees are the most abundant pollinators, the consequences of their disappearance would be catastrophic for any living thing that eats them.

And since society is no longer comprised of hunters, gathers and farmers, all those crops are grown, harvested and sold to less organically inclined people of the world. Those in the commercial crops business rely on these insects to keep their harvests healthy. Honeybees pollinate roughly $587 million worth of Texas crops per annum, according to an article in Texas A&M Agrilife Extension. This poses a potential economic disaster if the bee population continues to die off.

In addition, the environmental impact could be a major concern. According to the same article “watermelons, cantaloupes, almonds…other food products depend on pollination by domesticated bees.” Botanist and author Scooter Cheatham says it’s “clear that without the bees, the plant kingdom would go away. There are other pollinators, but bees are the dominant ones.”

Blake Shook, former president of the Texas Beekeepers Association says that the state’s bee populations have not seen anything positive in recent times, citing a 30-40% crash in the honey industry.

“We are going into turbulent times in the industry,” Shook said.

That’s Just Apathetic

Ironically, for all this turbulence surrounding the honey industry, it may be the absence of any action at all contributing to the demise of the pollinators.

Texas resident and college student Naomi Sanchez says she is disappointed at the apathy she sees in her community when it comes to conserving bee habitats.

“We say save the bees but do nothing about it,” Sanchez said. “We, as the people, ruin their honey supply just for our needs.”

But there are also those who aren’t just sitting listlessly. They are running away. There are those, like Arlington resident Samantha Monroe, who associate bees with aggression and fears bodily harm. She says that she is not a fan of the stinging insects.

“Bees are stupid...they sting you and terrorize you,” Monroe said.

The Road to Hell Is Paved With

But with great activism and awareness comes great responsibility. There is a delicate balance between becoming a part of the solution or being a part of the problem. In fact, in today’s trend-happy society, those call-to-action tweets and Facebook shares might not always be beneficial.

As people learn more about the plight of honeybees, it opens the door to those with the best and the worst intentions. The widespread awareness has led to a rise in the number of amateur hobbyist beekeepers either hoping to help the cause or looking to profit from the demand.

Those who adopt the hobby for the purpose of repopulating often end up doing the opposite. Leach believes uneducated keepers just end up killing their bees. And not just the mean ones.

“If you were to just buy a bunch of hives and buy a bunch of bees, and you didn’t know anything, you’d probably kill a bunch of them. Yea, it’s probably something you should work up to,” he said.

Others have one goal in mind. It’s the money, honey. They can also be under educated, producing the same sinister results as their save-the-earth counterparts. But worse than that, many of these profit-driven enthusiasts become bee wranglers.

But these wranglers aren’t dressed in boots, armed with a lasso. They wear the great white suits of commercial beekeepers, which provides the perfect substitute for a ski mask – a dark netted hat to expertly hide their identities. This helps make bee thievery a perfect crime, according to National Geographic.

Simple Solution

Although the situation seems very damned-if-you-do, the bottom line is the honeybee is undoubtedly way more important than many people previously believed. And since it is safe to assume the human race doesn’t want to die out, the solution is simple. There’s a consensus among those who know a thing or two about a thing or two, one of those things being honeybees. In the words of the great Aretha Franklin, just give the honeybees what they deserve.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

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photos and slideshow - Jeni King

infographic - Creighton Branch

colony loss graph - Cody O'Brien