Friday, March 29th, 2024
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To Bee or Not to Bee

It’s a question that is causing a lot of concern in the world. As honey bee populations are dying off, the world is at risk for losing the vital pollinators of its life-sustaining crops, like apples, oranges, lemons, limes, blueberries, broccoli, onions, cherries, cantaloupes, avocados and almonds. Not to mention sweet, delicious honey.

In an effort to do its part for the bees, Millersville University has started an apiary on campus. An apiary, by the way, is the term for the place where beehives and bees are kept. It’s a home for bees, so to speak. The new bees on the block arrived earlier this summer, after MU alum and beekeeper Dan Bleecker provided two hives with some 6,000 to 10,000 honey bees.

“This is very exciting news for Millersville, as far as I know, we may have the first apiary among the State System (Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education) universities,” says Dr. John Wallace, biology professor and director of Millersville’s Center for Environmental Sciences.

WallaceHoney
Dr. John Wallace

Wallace reports that the dangerous decline in honey bees has been linked to several factors, including disease, mites, pesticides, habitat changes and climate change.

Wallace is well experienced with bees and has even worked with the fierce Africanized honey bees as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala. European honey bees are far more tranquil, he says. Typically, honey bees only sting to protect the hive. When they do sting, they give up their lives to save the colony.

“In Guatemala, beekeepers were severely limited in how many hives they could keep in an apiary due to the aggressiveness of this bee,” says Wallace.  “That’s something we do not have to contend with here in Millersville.

With Wallace’s busy schedule of research over the summer, he was grateful that two Millersville biology students were ready to take on the task of beekeepers. Rob Parkes and Dorian Seibel were enthusiastic about learning the ropes of running an apiary. Parkes served in the U.S. Marines for seven years and then joined the Reserves, while he pursues his ocean and coastal studies degree at MU. Now he serves as apiary manager, with members of the Entomology Club as assistants.

“Dorian and I have always wanted to raise bees,” says Parkes. “Not only will the bees be helpful in pollinating plants and flowers on the Millersville campus, but if all goes well, we might even be able to eventually produce honey for use at Millersville.”

BeeHiveTo get the project off the ground, Parkes and Seibel applied for—and received two grants—to cover the cost of the bees, their hives and related beekeeping gear, like smokers, beekeeping suits, netting and gloves. The apiary was set up in a secluded area used by the meteorology department. The building and grounds department cleared a small spot for the apiary, while Hitchens Fencing put up a chain link fence. The fence obviously doesn’t keep the bees in. It keeps people from wandering too close to thousands of buzzing bees. Parkes’ wife, Amanda, made a sign alerting people to the risks.

Parkes is responsible for checking on the welfare of the honey bee population and maintaining their supply of sugar water. As Wallace notes, “Bees will be better if you leave them be, but not too much. Today’s survival issues require a bit more attention.”

With Millersville’s new apiary, the goal is to increase the number of hives from the first two to at least eight hives. Each hive may have as many as 10,000 to 15,000 bees. They can make up to 60 pounds of honey in a year.

“Each hive has one queen,” explains Parkes, adding that the bees are all focused on taking care of their queen, so she can increase the population of the hive.

Parkes adds that the bee world is a woman’s world. Only a few bees are males or drones, whose only purpose is to impregnate the queen. After they do, they die. The rest of the colony are females and the worker bees are indeed busy bees with specific jobs to do.

Worker bees only live a few weeks, and during their life span, they start off as nurse bees, taking care of the baby bees. They then move on to other jobs, like cleaning up debris, building the honey comb, maintenance of the hive, guarding the hive, and finally foraging. The oldest bees fly off to find sources of nectar and pollen, bringing it back to the hive in little built-in “baskets.” They don’t live long after that, literally working themselves to death.

The honey and honey comb they produce comes from the nectar and pollen they gather. It’s used to sustain the colony, and just happens to be the world’s oldest sweetener. Honey is believed to last indefinitely if stored properly, with an expiration date of “forever.”

BeeCloverPollination occurs when the bee collects nectar and pollen from the flower of a plant. Some pollen sticks to the hairs of her body. When she visits the next flower, some of this pollen is rubbed off onto the stigma of the flower. This allows fertilization to occur and seed-carrying fruits to develop.

“That’s why we so desperately need bees,” says Parkes, while biology major Rachel Malampy stresses, “If they go, we go.”

Millersville’s apiary team is asking people to let them know if they notice bee swarms. A swarm occurs when bees are trying to locate a new hive, and they most often gather inside a tree.

“Don’t destroy them. Call us,” says Parkes. “We’re ready to come out and gather up the bees to bring them back to the Millersville apiary to help build our bee population.”

To contact the Millersville apiary, call Dr. Wallace at 717-871-4318.

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