AN expert bee keeper is of the view that “if bees were to disappear from the surface of this earth, Mankind will only have four more years to live.”

Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) staffer and expert beekeeper, Dr Manuel Sanchez made this comment attributed to Albert Einstein as a reminder to beekeepers and members of the public of the huge role bees play in the reproduction of communities of plants necessary for the survival of humans.

ROLE IN AGRICULTURE

And he decried the notion of bees as primarily “killers”. He said: “Bees are a vital part of the ecosystem services, particularly in agriculture. The perception that their sole purpose is to sting and to kill is misguided.”

Dr Sanchez said that most crops grown for their fruits (including vegetables such as squash, cucumber, tomato and eggplant), nuts, seeds, fiber (such as cotton), and hay (alfalfa grown to feed livestock), require pollination by insects.

Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the male parts of a flower to the female parts of a flower of the same species, which results in fertilisation of plant ovaries and the production of seeds necessary for reproduction.

The main insect pollinators, by far, are bees.

Dr Sanchez explained: “When a bee lands on a flower, the hairs all over the bees’ body attract pollen grains. Stiff hairs on their legs enable them to groom the pollen into specialised brushes or pockets on their legs or body, and they carry it back to their nest. Individual bees tend to focus on one kind of flower at a time, which means it is more likely that pollen from one flower will be transferred to another flower of the same species by a particular bee. Many plants require this kind of pollen distribution, known as cross-pollination, in order to produce viable seeds.”

The productivity of modern agriculture would be drastically reduced without the humble honey bee.

Dr Sanchez said: “The logic is simple: No bees; no pollination; no plants, no animals, no humans. If bees go down they are taking us, humans with them.”

The expert made the observations  while teaching local beekeepers how to increase their production and productivity using new and improved methods of production in which bees are kept in hives which approximate the conditions in which they live in the wild.

The Perone hive, which he was training them to build and use, was designed with the proportions of a “divine geometry” and imitated the holes in a large tree where wild bee colonies used to make comb.

Dr. Sanchez admitted that the Africanised bees attack and kill humans and animals on occasion but said that these bees become aggressive mainly when they are not happy in the hives in which they live.

“If bees get to build their nests the way they want to, they become less aggressive; so with systems that are more natural to the bees they become gentle with time. You don’t bother them they don’t bother you.”
WE NEED THEM
He stressed: “Bees have been around for over 100 million years. Humans have existed only 100,000 years. They don’t need us, we need them.”
The expert also remarked on the great potential of Guyanese beekeepers to supply the Region and the rest of the world with honey.
He said: “There is tremendous potential for honey. The U.S. is running out of honey because they are losing their hives so they are now buying a lot of honey and honey is in great demand.”
He said that Guyana’s beekeeping has a lot of potential.
“There is lot of vegetation which can be used by the bees. You also have the wood to construct the hives in large quantities. You have people interested in doing bee-keeping so I think with the improved technology and with the right approach you can produce a lot, beekeepers can dramatically improve their income.”

By Clifford Stanley