March 13, 2015<\/p>\n
Honey Bees<\/p>\n
Have you seen me? This week’s<\/p>\n
warmup has local honey exiting<\/p>\n
their hives and letting go a little. Or,<\/p>\n
actually, a lot.<\/p>\n
The warmer temperatures we’ve had these past few days really have things<\/p>\n
flying: Mud, as my dog Joey runs through our very moist yard. Sandhill cranes,<\/p>\n
high in the sky, as they make their way north.<\/p>\n
And honey bees.<\/p>\n
Here at Hickory Knolls we are twice blessed to have not only a honey bee<\/p>\n
tree behind our building, but also a dozen managed hives close by, in a field<\/p>\n
southwest of the nature center.<\/p>\n
Even though there’s still a considerable amount of snow around the ‘Knolls,<\/p>\n
the honey bees have been making the most of the sun and warmth. After<\/p>\n
months of being cooped up, either in the hives or the hollow of the bee tree,<\/p>\n
it’s time to get out and let go a little.<\/p>\n
Well, actually, let go a lot. We’ll get to that part of the story in a minute. First<\/p>\n
though we need to take a look at what these industrious insects have been up<\/p>\n
to throughout the long winter months.<\/p>\n
At a time when most insects were whiling away the hours in some sort of<\/p>\n
inactive state, be it egg, larva, pupa or adult\u2014or just plain dead–our local<\/p>\n
honey bees were alive and well, and living in climate-controlled comfort.<\/p>\n
OK, maybe the term “comfort” is pushing things a little. These social insects<\/p>\n
were working their little [honey] buns off. But for a good cause: They were<\/p>\n
keeping their queen \u2013 the reproductive bee that ensures the colony’s future \u2013<\/p>\n
at summer-like temperatures as warm as 95 F.<\/p>\n
The secret to this amazing feat lies in the bees’ ability to generate heat \u2026 by<\/p>\n
shivering.<\/p>\n
As humans, we tend to reach for another sweater or blanket the first instant<\/p>\n
we feel a chill. But animals don’t have that option. In bees, the shiver is<\/p>\n
produced in the flight muscles. The muscles that move wings up and the<\/p>\n
muscles that move wings down contract at the same time. The results are<\/p>\n
wings that don’t move at all, because the movements cancel each other out,<\/p>\n
and heat, produced as a byproduct of that exertion, as energy is metabolized.<\/p>\n
So how did the bees fuel that internal fire? With honey, of course. A decent-<\/p>\n
sized colony of bees with, let’s say, a few tens of thousands of individuals, can<\/p>\n
produce around 200 pounds of honey over spring, summer and fall. Just as<\/p>\n
we store up firewood to be burned for warmth, the honeybees store up honey<\/p>\n
to be eaten, then turned into heat.<\/p>\n
It’s a pretty good system, darn near perfect, in fact. Except for one thing.<\/p>\n
There’s a law of nature that states something like, “Everything that eats,<\/p>\n
excretes,” and honeybees, sweet as they are, are no exception.<\/p>\n
I know what you’re thinking. Surely, with their well-developed architectural<\/p>\n
skills and advanced social system, honeybees must have some sort of<\/p>\n
provision for relieving themselves inside the hive, right? I mean, even<\/p>\n
chipmunks \u2013 rodents that they are \u2013 excavate little “bathroom” chambers in their burrows. Certainly a colony<\/p>\n
sophisticated enough to have a queen would also think to have a throne.<\/p>\n
Alas, bees have no such arrangement. Compounding matters is the strict code by which all worker bees must abide:<\/p>\n
There’s no pottying inside the hive.<\/p>\n
Oh my. What’s a poor honeybee to do?<\/p>\n
The answer is deceptively simple: They hold it.<\/p>\n
That’s right. All through the winter, as the winds whipped and the snow blew, the honeybees were inside their bee hives,<\/p>\n
holding it.<\/p>\n
When the gray skies dumped sleet and freezing rain, the honeybees were hanging in there, crossing their little bee<\/p>\n
knees.<\/p>\n
Finally, this week, the sun came out and the temperatures rose. But, oh boy golly\u2014look out!<\/p>\n
Like miniature bombers the honey bees emerged, intent on dropping their loads anywhere from a few to several feet<\/p>\n
away from the hive. These trips, known as cleansing or defecation flights, produce drips \u2013 mustard-colored blotches on<\/p>\n
the ground, on parked cars, even on the mounds of snow that remain in the shaded areas of our savanna and prairie.<\/p>\n
Not to digress too much, but there are some researchers who believe that the cleansing flights also function as scouting<\/p>\n
flights, during which the bees look for sources of fresh water and food. It won’t be too much longer before our wind-<\/p>\n
pollinated tree species will be flowering. These tiny blooms will provide the bees with a much-needed supply of protein,<\/p>\n
just the thing to rev the bees up for the coming spring.<\/p>\n
So there you have it. Some time while the weather’s still warm\u2014maybe even this weekend–treat yourself to a walk on<\/p>\n
the trails at Hickory Knolls. Splash through some puddles, and take a long look at the remnants of what might be (dare I<\/p>\n
say it?) the last snowdrifts of the season.<\/p>\n
Do you see any yellow blotches? If so, you know for sure you’re in bee territory. Just remember (and to paraphrase the<\/p>\n
immortal Frank Zappa):<\/p>\n
“Watch out where the honey bees go,<\/p>\n
And don’t you eat that yellow snow.”<\/p>\n
Pam Erickson Otto is the manager of nature programs and interpretive services at the Hickory Knolls Discovery Center, a<\/p>\n