Bees are the underappreciated workers of the garden. They forage for pollen and spread it around the yard, and they're the reason many plants bear fruit and vegetables.
"We tend to take bees for granted, but I can't emphasize enough how important they are for the garden," says David Marder, president of the Orange County Beekeeper's Assn. and owner of Beebusters, a Laguna Beach company that specializes in bee removal.
"Crops like almonds are entirely dependent on bees for pollination," he says.
Bees are critical in the garden, agrees Eric Mussen, extension apiculturist with the entomology department at UC Davis.
"Plants such as cucumbers, squash and melons, as well as many fruit and nut trees, won't produce a crop unless visited by bees. Although some plants can produce without pollination, their crops tend to be inferior," he says.
Unpollinated fruits and vegetables will be malformed and only partially developed. A strawberry that wasn't visited by a bee, for example, will be small. The more pollination, the bigger and better the quality of the fruit and vegetables. And a number of plants will not produce seed without the help of bees.
"Bees move plant pollen from the reproductive parts of one flower to another," explains Mussen. This results in seed formation, which eventually becomes a fruit, vegetable, seed or nut. "Those fruits and vegetables that come from a flower usually need pollination."
Until recent years, the European honeybee (Apis mellifera) did most backyard pollinating, but these bees have taken a few hits in the last several years. Two mite infestations wiped out many honeybees, and the recent encroachment of Africanized honeybees (Apis mellifera scupellata) in the county has put them at greater risk.
Known as "killer bees," Africanized bees can interbreed with European honeybees and quickly transform the behavior of the bees. Unfortunately, when the two types mate, the aggressive behavior is the dominant trait.
The threat of European hives becoming Africanized has caused many Orange County cities to prohibit backyard beekeeping, which some say is not the answer.
"I think it's going to be environmentally detrimental to remove the hives, because all we'll be left with is Africanized bees," says Marder, who moved his bees out of his property in Laguna Beach to a more remote location.
Mussen agrees: "All they're really doing is taking friendly bees out of the environment and leaving Africanized ones there. The beekeeper who maintains his colonies is an asset to the community."
With the introduction of Africanized bees into Orange County, properly maintaining a hive now means taking precautions that weren't once necessary, says Nick Nisson, entomologist with the Agricultural Commissioner's office in Anaheim.
"Beekeepers have to take steps to ensure that their hives don't become Africanized, which includes reintroducing a hive on a regular basis with an artificially inseminated queen from a commercial bee breeder," Nisson says.
Queens should be replaced at least every year and often more frequently with these artificially inseminated queens. These queens don't go on any mating flights and therefore aren't in danger of breeding with Africanized bees and creating Africanized bees.
"The hobbyist beekeepers actively maintaining hives need to be aware that they should either get rid of their hives or begin requeening," Nisson says. "It's the unattended hives that cause problems."
Despite the Africanized bees' aggressive tendencies, the good news is that they are just as good, if not better, foragers than European bees, so backyard crops shouldn't be adversely affected.
"Africanized honeybees are really active pollinators," Marder says. "When you open up one of their colonies, the first thing you see is an unbelievable amount of pollen. They're also prolific storers of honey."
At any given time, a third of honeybees are out foraging for pollen and nectar, Mussen says. Pollen provides bees with protein, vitamins, minerals and fat, and nectar gives them carbohydrates.
The foraging bees take the pollen back to the hive for consumption by the worker bees, who then make royal jelly, which is fed to the queen and her larvae. The nectar that bees transport to the hive is converted into honey.
European and Africanized honeybee hives function year-round and in great numbers. One European honeybee hive can have from 10,000 to 50,000 bees.
Honeybees aren't the only bees to pollinate the garden. Although they aren't as efficient or prolific, bumblebees, wasps and pollen bees also do their share.
Bumblebees (Bombus species) live in a similar manner to honeybees, although the hives are much smaller and the worker bees die off during winter while next season's queens hibernate. Most bumblebee hives have just 50 to 75 occupants. Tomatoes, eggplants, chili peppers and blueberries are pollinated by bumblebees.
