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Beekeeping in San Luis ObispoBy Tim Vaughan
Honey bees are a very important part of the lives of people in Europe, Asia and Africa, and when people from these places came over, they at first didn't bring bees with them, as transportation was difficult. But advanced agriculture, particularly European, Asian and Mideastern, can't take place without bees, so steps were taken to bring them over. Here in San Luis Obispo, there were probably small numbers of the Spanish bee, Apis mellifera Iberica early in the 1700's, but the more important introduction was of the European Black bee, Apis mellifera mellifera in the 1850's. It is the European Black bee that up until the early 1990's that largely were the ancestors of the feral bees generally seen in tree trunks, etc..The most common bee used today in our part of the country is the Italian bee, Apis mellifera Linguista. Here is a picture of one of my black colored bees. I'm not sure what type it is. Here is another picture of one of my bees cleaning the hive. Here is another picture of bees cleaning, but this is a test, and will take long to download. Then with the introduction of the Varroa mite from Asia (which looks like a small tick), our feral bees, and most of the managed bees died out. Now, when you see a swarm of bees in an old building or somewhere it is probably a swarm from a managed hive which has been treated to kill the mites. Bees propagate themselves by sending off swarms from the parent hive every year, and sometimes the beekeeper doesn't catch them. This is the reason for wild honey bees in America. Nowdays, they usually last about 2 years before the Varroa mites kill them off. One of the practical ramifications of the great die-off of the feral bees is the lack of pollination that we have been used to. Avocado farmers for example until recently did not really have to worry about pollination because there were enough bees living in the wild to pollinate the farms. Now however the avocado farmers are making sure there are bees during blooming season by working with beekeepers. Almond and seed producers also use bees extensively. If you have noticed that your back yard fruit trees have produced fewer and/or smaller fruit in the last several years, the lack of bees is probably the reason. Fruit with more than one seed have a direct relationship between the number of seeds and the size of the fruit. On these fruits like apples, cucumber, squash, pears ect..the female part of the flower is multiple, and the more of these that are pollinated, the bigger the fruit. So smaller apples, less plums and curved or deformed squash are all likely the result of poor pollination. Fruit like plums,avocados and almonds have just one ovary, and so the lack of pollination manifests itself by less fruit, although the size of the fruit is not affected. One of the nice things about living on the Central Coast is that we can usually get honey all year round. The eucalyptus and wildflowers are especially nice for bees during the winter, and people bring there bees here from all over the US. This year was particularly strange, with many fruit trees blooming much too early. The value of the bee's pollination is estimated by the government to be in the neighborhood of 15 billion dollars per year in the US, and that doesn't even count the increase of backyard fruit, the increase of flowers, etc.., so it is a good idea to avoid killing bees unnecessarily. It is, though just a matter of time before the African Killer bee, Apis mellifera Scutelata, comes to San Luis County, if they are not already here, which I suspect (I am writing 2-5-2003). Any swarm encountered which is not in a man-made beehive should be considered suspect.
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