The Bees Knees

BEE’Sknees the By Tony Niccoli

This is a story decades in the making – and it starts with a young boy named Riley Reed looking for an inflatable raft. He and his dad went into their garage and opened a box, and inside they found an unexpected surprise. Bees!

As the swarm of bees came pouring out of the top of the box, they quickly shut the lid and ran away. Then Riley’s dad came up with a plan. They would return later that evening when the bees were asleep to get the raft, and to get a chance to check out this fascinating wonder of nature. So equipped with flashlights and a sense of adventure, they returned later that night and opened the box again. When I asked what they saw, I almost fell over laughing. “Turns out they weren’t really asleep. They were just all cooped up in the hive and angry. Big mistake!” But it was the next interaction that would set Riley on course to become an entomologist. After such a scary encounter, the fascinated 8 year old got to see something entirely different. A neighbor who cared for bees came over and calmly transferred the hive into a cardboard box. He didn’t even shut the lid. Without any mask or protective gear he walked back to his car, placed the open box in the back seat, thanked them for the bees, waved goodbye, and hopped in the front and drove off, completely unafraid of the bees that were beginning to fly around in the backseat. “Right there I knew it. I said – someday I’m going to do that!” And young Riley was hooked.

When Heather and I first crossed paths with Riley, we were strolling around one of the out-buildings at the Palouse Empire Fair last year in Colfax. Those displays and contests are always one of our favorite parts of visiting the local fairs. As many of you know, we sponsor an event annually at the Latah County Fair – the Home&Harvest Huckleberry Battle. That always keeps us busy at the start of the fair, but really our favorite part at all the local fairs is just getting to see all the amazing and creative entrants – from photography and art, to produce and animals, and even quilting, baking and floral design. Thrown in along the way are always local groups and a chance to see something new that you never realized was taking place right in your own community.

Riley was there answering questions about bee keeping and the WSU Honey Bee and Pollinator Program. He was showing some really cool displays of the interior working of hives to a group of kids when we rolled up and joined in. I’ve always been fascinated by bees and couldn’t believe that WSU actually had one of the most advanced programs for their study right here in our local area. My personal fascination with bees didn’t start with a swarm in our garage, but rather a soccer team. After all, it was in the bleachers of a Bee’s game that my mom went into labor with me, and it was in those same bleachers that I would spend many fall days growing up. Every time I see a team with bees as a mascot, or see them buzzing around our flowers it brings back great memories and puts a smile on my face. But up to this point in life I still hadn’t had the chance to wear one of those awesome masks and let them crawl around on me. It was definitely a bucket list goal!

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So after talking to Riley about the program and our interest in writing an article we were all set. I got his info and just had to patiently wait out the winter so we could get a chance to meet and interact with the bees in the spring. Writing for the magazine was really paying off now – I was going to find a way to get to wear a bee suit! I started counting the days. But winter likes to linger here in North Idaho. Just when you think spring weather is fully taking hold, another late season snowstorm covers the ground and sends us all back indoors huddling under a blanket. The temperatures that seem so warm and inviting in the persistent fall feel daunting and frigid when they return after a week of sun, and it seems that glow of the sun has forgotten us entirely some days as the wait continues. And then, when you finally realize that you can’t possibly wait another day, the snow vanishes even quicker than it came, the crocuses and tulips start popping up from freshly thawed soil, and the weather gives its final break – winter relenting and standing aside permanently. Or at least standing aside for six to eight months. This was just one of those winters. After a five or six day run of sunny weather and blossoming greenery, I took the opportunity of having a day off to get out and mow our lawn and de-winterize our 1967 Airstream. I even planned to call Riley and see if the bees were ready to start their spring chores when I was done. But just as I had finished flushing all the water systems, refilling the holding tank, and testing the propane lines, I felt a strong breeze and pulled the collar of my coat closed against the cold. A quick check of phone to see the forecast, and I ran inside to alert Heather that I was about to winterize the Airstream again. Twenty degree weather and a week of snow was only a few hours away. I’m sorry to all of you, truly, because I’m fairly certain that my decision to embrace spring early is what jinxed us this year and brought on that sudden drop of the mercury. Watching a foot of snow pile up again – this time in April – wasn’t something that got me down. You just get used to rolling with that sort of weather where we live. What did have me worried was pushing back our appointment to meet some marvelous creatures that were being re-located to help populate our local area. I just couldn’t wait to go see the bees! Finally the weather broke, we rescheduled with Riley and we even got to be there to see the bees’ first day in the Palouse region and the introduction to their new homes. They had traveled in wood boxes that had screens on both sides, a big stopper on the top, and a little inner cage to keep the queen isolated and safe during the journey. That protects her, and allows the rest of the colony time to accept her new presence. With practiced precision, one of the professors would pour them out into an open hive, with most of the bees flowing together like a thick syrup, and the last few stragglers needing a bit more coaxing. Each box had 3 pounds of bees, which I guessed at being several hundred, but later found out was actually closer to 10,000! A second professor was taking samples from each colony during the transfer and getting them quickly on ice for future study. Finally, the little cage with the queen was removed and placed in the center of the hive. She would be getting a few more days to acclimate before having the cage removed and freeing her to start working. Riley was going by and delivering a sugary treat for each hive so they would have plenty to sustain them until our local flowers started fully blooming. Then the lids were closed, and the group moved on to the next box. 150 colonies made this trip, and by the time you read this article many of the new locals will be happily buzzing about the flowers in your back yard. For the most part, the bees were all very well behaved and just excited-

-to get into their new hives and begin to warm up a little. One did manage to find its way up Heather’s pant leg and got a little confused. I’m sure it didn’t mean any harm, and was just frightened, but it went ahead and stuck a stinger into her lower leg. Heather - who normally panics and runs away when bee gets too close, but had actually been very calm and unafraid that afternoon – walked up to me very calmly as I was taking a few photos of the inside of one of the hives. She tapped me on the shoulder and said “Oh, excuse me, Tony, but I do believe I am being stung right at this very instant” She was so calm that I quickly laughed and said that, no, in fact if she had been stung for the first time ever in life, she would absolutely know it. She just replied, “yes, then I have definitely been stung.” We pulled up her pant leg and quickly removed the stinger. Heather was just sad for the bee whom she decided to name “Gertie” and asked if there was any chance she would survive after the sting. The ladies you see outside of the hive visiting flowers are the workers – but really there is some question as to who works for whom. The queen is stuck inside working her entire life, and just laying eggs according to the types of cells the workers choose to create. The queen knows the difference between a cell that was prepared for a work and one that was created for a drone. After taking her one and only mating flight outside of the hive (or being inseminated in a lab for greater control) she will carry the reproductive cells inside her for the rest of her life. When she is presented with a larger cell, she simply chooses not to fertilize one of her eggs. This results in a male drone, who’s only purpose in life is to one day mate with another queen and pass on genetic information. When she comes across a smaller cell, the queen fertilizes one of the eggs inside her using that stored up spermatozoa. The fertilized egg, containing both her genetics and those of one of the drones she met on the mating flight, results in a female offspring. Almost all the females become workers and carry out the day-to-day operations for the hive. On rare occasions, the workers will decide it is time for a new queen and will feed the larva only royal jelly – not cutting it off after a few days like they would to create another worker. Somehow the hive knows how to regulate its population by number and sex as well as when it is time to make themselves a new queen. So she might be the queen, and may be ruling after all, or she might just be more of an assistant carrying out the directives of the rest of the ladies in charge. The queen lives for a few years, laying up to a two thousand eggs in a day at her peak. But eventually she runs out of spermatozoa and can no longer produce any females. Hopefully a new queen has been produced in time, and the hive continues to thrive. Thanks to the care of dedicated bee keepers, if the colony fails in transitioning, a new queen can often be introduced and the cycle continues. Riley said that when he got his first hive out of barn wall during his junior year of highschool, it was mostly other experienced bee keepers that set him on the right path to caring for them. One of the first lessons was that you can read all the books you want, but the truth is the bees won’t bother to read those same books. So in the end, they are going to do what they want, and won’t always be predictable. He found that the best way to learn was to actually get out there and spend time with them. For most colonies this means checking in on them at least once every week or at most ten days. This allows time to catch any problems before they become serious, and to see if the colony has lost a queen and is working on developing a new one, or needing some immediate help. Behind almost all of the honey bees you see on their daily rounds, there are dedicated bee keepers checking in on their wellbeing, feeding them when blooms aren’t naturally available,-

-and sharing their love. In the summer, Heather and I love to have coffee on our back deck or front porch in the morning. And the yard is always abuzz with the older ladies from local colonies out collecting for their families. It turns out there is a hierarchy to jobs in a bee colony. The younger workers start life by cleaning out their own cell, making sure it is ready for the next egg. They might transition on to jobs like undertaker, pulling dead sisters and brothers out of the hive and tidying up, and eventually onto being a nurse caring for and feeding new larva. Some will become attendants for the queen, cleaning and feeding her so she can stay busy – others move on to producing wax for the comb. Some specialize in making the honey we all crave. Others work as heaters or cooling fans, using movement and the flapping of their wings to regulate the temperature for the hive. Then they go to more adventurous posts like guarding the entrance from predators. And by the time they are reaching the end of their days they pop out and visit us on their daily collection routes. This is the most dangerous job, exposing her to constant threats outside the protection of the hive and so is selectively reserved for those nearing the end of their few short months of life. The saying busy as a bee suddenly takes on new meaning when you slow down a bit and watch how diligently they all work. Besides the daily visitors to our flowers, fruits and vegetables, I also always love to see the hive boxes scattered around our region. Whether it’s on the side of a highway, out barely visible in the middle of a field, or just in a neighbor’s yard – all of these bee keepers are helping to care from something really special and greatly needed to keep our agriculture producing. The truth is, honey bees are just so amazing, but so are the armature bee keepers and the scientists who are studying them. On a tour through one of the WSU labs I got to see the stations where they artificially inseminate queens to control the genetic lines. We looked at experiments in progress delving into everything from microbiomes to mating and reproduction. From ways to defend against mites to how they can help protect against diseases. We even saw the cryogenics tanks where viable reproductive cells are stored for future insemination, and the extreme freeze refrigerant systems that are keeping DNA in long-term storage for forthcoming experiments that may be dreamed up in the future. They study the changes in the populations that they help to create, adapt to what the bees are experiencing here in their regional environments, and formulate new ways to aid in their survival and success as thriving colonies of essential pollinators. And against this backdrop there is the also the collaboration with large-scale pollinating and honey production operations. That amazing support and sharing of observations and data drives forward the understanding of how to protect failing populations, and how to create environments in which colonized honey bees thrive, as well as hundreds of other local pollinators that remain essential to the success of local plants. When problems are noticed in the field, or new lines of questioning are imagined in the labs, there is a quick sharing techniques and best practices – the end goal of all of work is thriving populations of honey bees that are well prepared to prosper in our region and beyond. That makes for better populations of pollinators for all the wonderful crops that depend on them. In the late winter, the team from WSU rounds up all their colonies, and prepares to move to warmer weather for continued study. The snow is brushed off the hive boxes and they-are stacked on pallets. Those pallets, too small to fill their own semi-trailer will be delivered to a larger commercial operation that give some of their extra space for the University’s colonies to hitch a ride. Massive trucks with cold, sleepy bees make their way down to almond fields in California. This allows for much more study – as the warmer weather means that the bees will be out and gathering months earlier than they ever could near WSU. After a few months of study, and spring is getting ready to break in the Palouse, the scientists wrap up their experiments and prepare to head home. At this point, some bees will remain in CA or be sold to regional farmers that have a shorter route home. Some will return to their normal homes in WA and ID, and with them, massive trucks of new colonies will make the trip to establish new hives. The hives we got to see were at the Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute at the end of Rodeo Drive in Moscow. They were all new to the Palouse but will be quickly thriving and setting out to work in our gardens. Other new colonies went to locations scattered across Pullman, Troy, Othello, Albion, and out at the Smoot Hill research area, where the dedicated team from WSU will continue to study and care for them. By maintaining and caring for hundreds of colonies of active honey bees students like Riley, and professors he to push forward the understanding of what bees need for success today – and well into the future. And the triumph of those colonies directly relates to the crops that depend on them.

Here on the Palouse – canola is the main pollination work for bees that are used on production farming, but nearby in orchards across Washington, the cherries, apples, and pears that we all love have honey bees to thank for their success each year! So as you see them trying to land on your food at a picnic, or hoping to grab a sip of your soda at a ballgame this summer – please – resist that urge to swat away your friendly neighborhood pollinator. Maybe plant a few extra flowers, and leave out dish of water with pile of pebbles on the side so they can get a drink and then easily climb back out. Care about the bees that are calling our region their home and remember just how hard the University and keepers work to make sure we will have them for generations to come! Just before I left, I asked Riley if there was any good advice to share for people that might be interested in starting a hive in their own backyards. “Sure,” he said, “be a bee keeper – not a bee haver. There is a responsibility to caring for them and doing it right.” You can check out WSU’s Bee Program web page if you want to learn more about how you can bee a keeper yourself.