Ranger Burns at a honey bee hive
The National Wildlife Federation has designated June as National Pollinator Month to raise awareness of pollinators as a key component of global biodiversity, providing vital ecosystem services to home gardens, commercial agricultural crops, and wild flowering plants. The global decline in pollinator populations threatens a catastrophic collapse of the proper functioning of all ecosystems. Bees are the most efficient and effective pollinator. There are 20,000 species of bees worldwide, 4,000 species in North America and between 400-450 native species in South Carolina.
Local education initiatives are available on pollinator conservation. On June 3, Columbia Southeast Park rangers conducted Bees and Blooms, a two-hour workshop on social and solitary bee pollinators and native plants to attract them.
Ranger Alfred Burns, resident expert on pollinators and trained by the S.C. Mid-State Beekeepers Association, presented a talk on European honey bees, which are social bees and the most familiar and popular crop pollinators for S.C. peaches, blueberries, and watermelon. Since commercial agriculture depends on managed pollination, beekeepers transport honey bees to flowering fields around the country. The IRS considers beekeeping a form of farming, and the U.S. government classifies honeybees as livestock.
Suiting up to meet the honey bees at the hive.
Burns described several fascinating forms of honey bee communication— touching antennae, pheromones, and the waggle dance. His display of posters, “What is Pollination?,” “Bee Biology,” Inside the Hive,” and “How Honey is Made” are useful for teachers and homeschool educators. After his talk, participants donned protective beekeeping veils, suits, jackets, and gloves and walked to the hive to view busy bees at work.
Honey bees as social insects live in colonies. Each colony consists of one queen, 3,000 drones, and up to 60,000 worker bees. The queen is responsible for laying eggs. Drones mate with the queen. Worker bees are responsible for collecting nectar and pollen, building and maintaining the hive, caring for the young, and making honey. Bird netting surrounds the new park pollinator garden to deter resident deer from munching. Lori Watson, owner of Millcreek Greenhouse, recommended and sourced native species of aster, bee balm, blanket flower, boneset, coneflower, coreopsis, hydrangea, and milkweed for the garden. Think of a flower garden as a pollen source for bees.
Ranger Karla Brown presented a program on native solitary bees focusing on the diminutive (7-15mm) but powerful pollinator Mason bee life cycle. Of the 4,000 species of bees in North America, 90 percent live solitary rather than social lives. Females construct and provision a nest without any help from kin. About 70 percent of solitary bees are ground nesters; 30 percent are cavity nesters. Mason bees nest in hollow reeds or plant stems, wood-boring beetle cavities, or man-made bundles of bamboo. Female Mason bees build cement walls in their nesting chambers with mud and clay, “masonry products” giving each developing bee its own private room in the nesting chamber. A culminating activity for participants was to make a Mason bee bamboo cavity nest to take home to place in their garden.
Ranger Karla Brown compares characteristics of social vs. solitary bees.
Plan to visit South East Park to play tennis or pickle ball, stroll the boardwalk, fish, picnic, watch wildlife, meet the rangers, and to observe the bees and blooms.
•crownbees.com/mason-bee-life-cycle
•www.weekshoneyfarm.com
•www.facebook.com/scmidstatebeekeepers
Ranger Walsh holds a man-made mason bee nesting box.
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