Yesterday I saw a Bumble Bee face into a daisy. It would seem that the bee was doing what all bees do and that was either gathering pollen or harvesting nature’s nectar. An hour later I passed the same flower only to see the Bumble Bee was still there. On close observation, it was obvious the colorful, fuzzy bee was dead. She had succumbed while at work probably not even knowing her life was in danger. More than likely, it was a case of simple exhaustion.
This reminded me of being a beekeeper some years ago when I spent considerable time watching the behavior of these insects. I always liked to talk to them and referred to the swarm as the girls, as they were, for the most part, females---and admittedly the few drones, the males, were nigh onto worthless as far as work went. I don’t believe I will carry that analogy any farther.
When the honey flow was on, the effort of the girls was profound as they would forage out into the fields in search of pollen and nectar. The individual bees would come in all loaded down with their prize, stumble into the hive and unload their goods and immediately, maybe after a little dance and antennae rub, head back out for another load. Many times I would see heavily laden individuals come in and uncontrollably crash against the side of the hive, then drop to the entrance and crawl in, their wings worn, and legs partially dysfunctional, to deposit the payload. They were like crippled planes coming in from war. Other times I would see them struggle against the breeze, just hold off the runway idling, then fall short of the hive and simply die there in the grass, worn out from the many trips they had made in their short lives. It was sad because they had worked so hard for the hive and were not able to make it home that last time.
The ground around the hive was littered with wrecked miniature planes, some half dead but most tipped over in quiet repose, others, poised in death, still clinging to leaves of grass.
Like the Bumble Bee in my backyard, I would also see them in the field attached to flowers unable to lift off. It is just the way it was in their world. They had no time for Gameboys or smart phones. It was all work for the community. Still, it was a good life, organized and productive. So good that it gave us the golden treasure of honey. I learned respect for their being.
It has been easy to notice in the last few years there are fewer honey bees to be seen, but at the same time there seemed more native bees, the Bumble Bee. The honey bee is not a native but came over from Europe with the first settlers and has been used to pollinate many plants brought over and grown by those same settlers. To this day the European honey bee is used to do much of the pollinating of our huge fields and commercial trees. The local bees simply could not keep up, particularly if most of the natural environment was gone, which it is.
Recently, European Honey bees have suffered losses due to one malady or another, probably including the introduction of GMO crops that now have genes that make chemicals harmful to insects. It is just a constant struggle to remain in some sort of a balance while trying to stay on top of what some call a Progress Trap---an invention to improve one thing only to cause another crisis.
However, it seems local bees, the various Bumble Bees, the indigenous bees are doing fairly well for my raspberries are filled with them. Like the honey bee, they gather pollen for the protein and nectar made of sucrose, to feed themselves and their larva. Their colonies are much smaller, maybe fewer than 50 individuals and live in a variety of places, including my garage where there are maybe six nests. Unlike some of the honey bees I used to own, who were very aggressive and continually wanted to have a piece of me, the Bumble Bee is very docile and has almost no interest in humans as they cruise about. They don’t even mind long hair which infuriates the honey bee.
Just today I learned that the noble Bumble Bee creates static electricity and when entering a flower that electricity draws pollen to the hairs on the bee thus making it a fluffy ball of pollination power.
Now, it is no secrete there are many insects that pollinate, as can be observed in the evening light as it passes through the raspberries. There are flies of all sorts, big Hawk Moths, wasps, bees of many colors, and the delicate Hummingbirds.
What really got my attention today, other than the beautiful dead Bumble Bee lying in state there on the Daisy, was what I found when I googled Bumble Bee. In the first number of entries there on the pages was a list of ways and methods to kill bees, how to get rid of them, how to eliminate them from our presence. Sadly, most of them involved chemicals. These are the same chemicals that kill those other pollinators as well. We are saddened because the vast majority of the dead insects are harmless, and in truth a link, a connection, to all the other life around us.
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