Give bees a helping hand by eschewing pesticides and planting for year-round flowers.
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It used to be that on a summer’s day, if you stood very still and listened, you could hear the fluctuating hum of the collective mass of bees going about their business, flying backwards and forwards between flowers and their hives. And if you ran barefoot into the backyard, it wasn’t unusual to have to pluck a pulsating sting from the tender skin between your toes as your foot swelled like a balloon.
I can’t forget my bulging, grotesque face after a sting on the cheek as I watched my mother check her hives at the bottom of the garden, two days before I was to be the princess in a school play.
But now the air is filled with the hum of lawnmowers, chainsaws, and helicopters searching for criminals. And my children play in the buttercups without a care. Where are the honeybees? There has been a worrying and serious decline in the number of bees throughout the world. There is speculation about the cause.
Pesticides, especially the neo-nicotinoids, are cited as the primary reason. But another cause in New Zealand has been the tiny parasitic varroa mite, which has infiltrated hives across the country in recent times.
The honeybee’s plight in a changing world has touched the hearts of gardeners everywhere. Now that the hype and excitement we felt over the joys of growing our own food is settling to a steady buzz, we mustn’t forget the flowers. 2011 was a gloomy year, with earthquakes, floods and a recession. This year we can do our bit to cultivate a little romance and colour in the gloom by growing flowers. And adding a hive to the backyard.
Benefits
Bees require commitment, proper management and, preferably, a fascination with apiology. You will need to put aside about two hours a week to care for and maintain the hive. There is a cost in setting up: the purchase of hives; frames on which bees build their combs; protective clothing and headgear; and possibly honey-extracting equipment.
The best time to establish a new hive is in spring, when the colonies are just beginning to expand and swarm to look for new sites. Start with a small nucleus colony with a healthy queen bee bought from a breeder.
Having a beehive increases productivity of any fruiting crop by 30%. Bees have a high standard of hygiene. Worker bees collect propolis, which is a waxy resinous substance that is part of several plants’ immune systems. On returning to the hive, bees chew and manipulate it to glue up the sides of their hives. Propolis also has strong anti-bacterial properties and reduces disease and parasites within a hive. Unwanted intruders that can’t be driven out will be sealed completely with propolis to ensure they don’t infect the hive.
Register
Registering your hives, however small, is compulsory in New Zealand. This is so disease can be properly managed, as neglected hives can become breeding grounds for potentially devastating infestations such as varroa and American foulbrood. It is illegal to use antibiotics or drugs in beehives, making monitoring of them essential in the control of these diseases, while also ensuring honey is chemical-free. If you are serious about beekeeping, joining a beekeeping club through the National Beekeepers’ Association (www.nba.org.nz) will provide a vital source of information on bees in your area.
Food
Bees’ main source of food is nectar from the garden, forest or farm. Our native plants are a wonderful source of flowers that result in some of the best honey in the world, particularly manuka. To create these bush honeys, producers work with the Department of Conservation and farmers, moving hives to areas with an abundance of a specific plant during the peak flowering period to ensure a pure and distinct honey. Not all natives, though, are good for bees. Karaka flowers make bees drunk and can also give them nasty dysentery, although the honey is unaffected.
On the other hand, bees feeding on tutu (Coriaria arborea) can produce poisonous honey when they snack on the honeydew produced when passionvine hoppers are present in large numbers. This is most likely to occur during the hot summer months and is most common in rural areas where tutu grows abundantly in large areas of regenerating bush and along roadsides. Hobbyist beekeepers who live in areas where tutu grows need to take extra care, restricting harvests of honey during these periods unless close monitoring or testing is done.
Year-round flowers
A garden that is always in bloom is ideal for bees, especially if it’s also free from pesticides. The Beekeepers’ Association recommends wildflower mixes that contain 15 seeding plants to provide year-round pollen for bees. City beekeepers can’t expect pure manuka honey, but the benefits of blends from your local region are thought to assist hay-fever sufferers. The low doses of local pollens in honey may help our bodies to build up immunity to the flora of our region. This could be especially relevant in New Zealand with its high rates of asthma and hay fever.
Bees for hire
Before committing to setting up a beehive, contact your local beekeeping club to see if there are any beekeepers with hives for hire. Working alongside an experienced beekeeper is a great way to learn the skills and build confidence, and to work out whether beekeeping is something you would like to commit to long-term.
Choose an appropriate hive site. The entrance should be north facing, away from prevailing winds and where there might be risk of branches falling. Consider your neighbours, who may be afraid of, or allergic to bees, and ensure the flight path doesn’t mean they need to duck for cover when hanging out the washing. If the hive faces a fence or hedge that encourages the bees to lift their flight path before crossing the barrier, you are unlikely to offend.
But even if you don’t want to keep beehives, you can ensure your garden provides an enticing foraging ground for bees, especially if you know of local hives in your region.
The best thing you can do is garden without pesticides. Remember that every nectar-bearing flower, whether on a potted plant on a balcony, in a vegetable plot, on fruit trees, in native bush or a field of flowers, will help entice bees back to our world.
Helpful websites:
www.nba.org.nz
www.afb.org.nz
www.wildforage.co.nz
www.wildflowerworld.com
www.greenurbanliving.co.nz