"bees" news and stories

If 40% of your products were dependent on berries, fruits and nuts, you'd fork over a cool quarter of a million dollars to make sure those things were still coming, too.

Haagen-Dazs, whose ice creams are flavored with fruits, nuts and berries, has launched a campaign to raise $250,000 for research into the loss of honeybees, which are crucial for cross-pollination of fruit and nut trees. According to the USDA, diseases and pests have caused a 30% loss of the approximately 2.5 million managed colonies.

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Vanishing bees? "Pshaw!" you might be thinking about a mysterious killer that is wiping out America's population of honeybees. "So we won't have honey for our tea. Big deal!" you say.

Not so fast. Honeybees don't just make honey. If we lose bees, we lose the cross-pollination of all flowering crops, like fruits from trees, nuts, and other foods. In fact, with about 1/3 of the human diet coming from pollinated plants,and honeybees accounting for the majority of that pollination, vanishing bees could be "the biggest general threat to our food supply." SInce cattle also feed on alfalfa, the beef supply could be affected, too.

No word yet on what exactly the problem is, but bee experts are working on it.

Commercial beekeeping is a huge industry, though the component parts are very small. Bees are directly responsible for $15 billion worth of agriculture every year because they are needed to pollinate fields of all types of crops, as well as to produce honey. Farmers could rely on wild bees, but there just aren't enough of them to be reliable. The problem is, that there really aren't enough beekeepers, either.

There are roughly 125,000 beekeepers in the US and only 600 are commercial keepers. Almost three-quarters of all the beekeepers in the US are over 45 and most of them are retired, having embarked into beekeeping as a hobby. This means, in effect, that $15 billion worth of industry and agriculture "depend[s] on a bunch of retired hobbyists."

The issues that surround beekeeping, from fighting the mites that destroy the bees to shipping them out to farmers season after season so that crops can be pollinated, are actually more complicated and more interesting than you might expect. It's a hard industry that is getting harder to sustain every year - and yet so much depends on it. Reading the whole Plight of the Humble Beekeeper at eGullet will give you a new perspective on what is - and isn't - a buzzing industry.

[thanks, Elise]

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After a 20 year hiatus, a group of students at California State University at Fresno re-started the bee club on campus and created a project teaching beekeeping. I'm sure they didn't expect they would end up producing honey to sell in the farm market on campus. Two sisters from a beekeeping family came up with the idea and approached a professor. They raised money through donations and some school funding and got enough equipment and bees to get started. The club and project provide hands on experience for students and the profits will go to the Universities agriculture programs. The honey, in limited amounts, is available at the Farm Market on the southeast corner of Barstow and Chestnut avenues. It is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. For more information, call (559) 278-4511.

I was an outdoor educator for several years using experiential education as a teaching method, i.e., learning by doing. I love to hear about projects like this, especially when they are combined with my other loves, farming and making food products. Beekeeping and producing honey can be a lot of fun. I have known a few beekeepers, both professionals and hobbyists, over the years. When I was around 10-11 years old I helped out upon occasion during summer vacations in the mid-west, and even after a few stings got relaxed enough around the bees to wear just the minimum of protective gear. There is nothing like the feeling of eating honey you helped produce and collect. Beekeeping is sort of like raising livestock in miniature. You help provide shelter and safety, supply medicine when they are ill, and do all you can so they flourish. It is very satisfying and the end result, golden honey, is proof of your sweet success.

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Honey is a symbol of the sweet year ahead during the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, but it isn't an ingredient that gets as much respect as it deserves, largely because people tend to stick to the generic grocery store honeys. Now, it's not that there is anything wrong with a generic honey, but they do lack the nuances that many more specific varieties have to offer. These honeys often come from just one type of plant or one small area of land and, rather than just tasting sweet, they offer notes of berries, flowers, citrus and spices that can take a dessert - or even a piece of toast - to a new level. Epicurious picked out some of their favorites, which include:

• Black Sage Honey, mild with notes of apple and vanilla
• Star Thistle Honey, intensely floral
• Rosemary and Lavender Honey, very mildly herbal
• Javanese Island Honey Rambutan Blossom, strong taste of sandalwood and patchouli
• Forest Honey, dark and molasses-like

More can be found with the Honey Locator. You'll also be able to find some more exotic honeys by visiting a smaller, specialty grocer or perhaps just by taking a closer look at the labels at the supermarket. If you see more than one you like, you can always host your own honey tasting.