Bee Curious Bee Informed and Bee Friendly By

Bee Curious, Bee Informed, and Bee Friendly By Bonnie Steinhauser University of Nebraska Lincoln ENTO 896 - Erin Bauer-2017

Children’s Program

https: //youtu. be/a. Qm. Df 8 SMRSo

A Brush with a Bee Discussion ▶ What happened in the film? ▶ The bee was bothering the painter so he tries to get the bee to go away and the painting got ruined ▶ Why did the bee like the painting so much? ▶ It was a flower, the bees favorite! ▶ What happened in the end? ▶ The painter became very famous because the bee turned his painting into a modern painting ▶ Bee Safety-Let it ‘Bee” ▶ They are on a mission to find food, not hurt you ▶ more dangerous near the colony-protecting the queen and stored food ▶ Only 1% of people are allergic (to honeybees) ▶ Can we all ‘bee’ friends? ▶ Plant native flowers, let it ‘bee’, don’t spray harmful chemicals

What is a Bee? ▶ What is a bee? ▶ Fuzzy = Friendly ▶ Anatomy ▶ Legs-6 ▶ Eyes-2 ▶ Antennae-2 ▶ Wings-4 ▶ Life Cycle -Four stages ▶ Egg ▶ Larvae – multiple sizes ▶ Pupae ▶ Adult ▶A bee colony ▶ The Queen Bee- “The heart of the hive” ▶Lays the eggs to make new bees ▶ Drones- “Dad Bees” ▶Help the queen make baby bees ▶ Workers- “Gather and Guard” ▶Help find food for the baby bees and the protect the hive ▶Bee Cards- What kinds of bees are there?

The Beeman (book for groups 3 -5 yrs old) ▶ What does the Beeman do in the book? ▶ He helps take care of the bees and harvests some of the honey for family & friends ▶ We can also do it for other reasons (wax products, help the environment/bees) ▶ Why does the Beeman need a suit and a smoker? The Bee Dance-The Waggle ▶ To protect him from bee stings ▶ To calm the bees down and let them know he is coming ▶What are three main types of bees in the hive? ▶ ▶ ▶ Queen Drones Workers “Hey friends, food is this way!” https: //youtu. be/xe 3 LZ BDc. Qv. E ▶ Why does the Beeman wrap his hives up all snug and warm? ▶ Bees don’t like cold weather, must stay warm to live and make more honey next year ▶ Bees and Flowers (fruits & vegetables too) need each other ▶ Pollination (helping produce more food and flowers. . . and more bees!) ▶ Bees are part of important food chains

What If There Were No Bees? ▶ (book for groups 6+ yrs old) Why are bees important? ▶ Flowers, fruits, and vegetables depend on them for pollination ▶ We depend on the fruits, veggies, and nuts to reproduce for food for us ▶ Why are the flowers and fruits also important to the bees? ▶ ▶ ▶ So they can help bees produce honey So the bees can feed their young So we can have more bee colonies to help pollinate To keep food chains in place What are some dangers to bees? ▶ ▶ Mites, diseases, pesticides, poor nutrition, and predators What is CCD? The Bee Dance-The Waggle “Hey friends, food is this way!” https: //youtu. be/xe 3 LZ BDc. Qv. E ▶ multi-factor system that causes a mass of worker bees to leave the current colony and queen behind maybe due to disease, pesticides, or changes in habitat ▶ What would happen without Bees? ▶ ▶ ▶ Low fruit, vegetable, and nut productions No seed production of flowering bushes (berries) Breakdown in the food chains ▶ no berries or bees for birds and squirrels ▶ no small animals for larger animals ▶ no honey for bears

Activities and Crafts!!!!!! ▶ ‘Help the Bee find its way to gather pollen from the flower and COLOR FUN ▶ Matching activity and COLOR FUN ▶ Fuzzy Friendly Bee Craft! ▶ Tape antennae at the top of the stick-give it a bend at the end ▶ Tape fuzzy poms to craft stick ▶ Tape wings on ▶ Glue Eyes and add magnet (adults help!) FLY YOUR BEE AROUND AND WAGGLE

Bee Curious, Bee Informed, and Bee Friendly By Bonnie Steinhauser University of Nebraska Lincoln ENTO 896 - Erin Bauer-2017

Adult Program

The Bee Book The wonder of bees, how to protect them, & beekeeping know-how ▶ An Amazing World of Bees ▶ What is a Bee ▶ Head, thorax, wings, etc. … ▶ Characteristics that make them special: hairs on body (electrically charged), hind legs (pollen basket in some), wings joined by small hooks allows them to move as one, stinger (few species can-and only females if so), & an especially long proboscis. ▶ Evolution and Pollination ▶ 100 mya it is thought that bees evolved from wasps that fed on pollen covered insects and began to prefer pollen ▶ 55 mya social living develops ▶ LOTS of different bees around the world (pg. 19 and bee cards) ▶ Solitary bees-the vast majority, they live and create their nests alone, but may nest near other solitary bees giving the appearance of a colony ▶ Semi-social bees such as sweat bees and bumblebees are primitively social, they loosely maintained colonies as a group ▶ Honeybees-very social-strict division of maintaining colonies

The Bee Book The wonder of bees, how to protect them, & beekeeping know-how ▶ Bee structure and Biology-SOPHISTICATED ▶ Colony castes (queen, drone, workers) ▶ Four stage life cycle (Egg, larvae-may have multiple instars, pupae, adult) ▶ Maintain hive temperatures using flight muscles in their thorax to heat and fanning with their wings to cool ▶ Communication-The waggle ▶ Displays figure eight first, then waggles a line through the two loops-the direction of the line describes the angle from the sun the other bees should take to find food ▶ Chemical reactions ▶ Honeybees make over 50 pheromones (queen pheromone–provides the greatest number of applications, brood, alarm, recruitment pheromones, act. ) ▶ Science behind foraging ▶ Scent signals emitted by flowers plus visual range of colors and patterns (some plain flowers display great patterns to a bees eye) allow bees to find food ▶ Bees also use a flowers electrical field to navigate the source of the nectar

The Bee Book The wonder of bees, how to protect them, & beekeeping know-how ▶ Attracting bees ▶ Bee homes- creating homes for solitary bees ▶ Bamboo, clay, wood block, sod, pallets ▶ Plants for Bees- Lots of garden options for bees, not just wildflowers ▶ Perennials, biennials, annuals, bulbs, trees, shrubs, climbers, veggies, & herbs ▶ Caring for Bees ▶ Research and Supplies ▶ Maintaining ▶ Managing ▶ Honey (Lots of information!) & Inspecting Pests & Diseases Stores ▶ Swarming ▶ Queen Problems & Preparing for winter

The Bee Book The wonder of bees, how to protect them, & beekeeping know-how ▶ Enjoying Bee Bounty ▶ Harvesting honey ▶ Harvesting beeswax ▶ Making Candles ▶ Health and Beauty Treasures ▶ Antibacterial properties of propolis (collected from trees) ▶ Bee-Pocalypse ▶ Every year we hear of more bee deaths caused by new diseases and pests, greater habitat loss (monoculture farming), pesticide spraying, migratory beekeeping ▶ Pollination ▶ Loss is VALUABLE of bees results in ecosystem breakdown, they are a keystone species ▶ Reversing the Decline—We will revisit this at the end

Image Credit: Keri Carstens

Bee Understanding A Video by the Honeybee Health Coalition ▶ Commercial Beekeeper, Entomologist, Crop Consultant, & Farmer ▶ Experiencing and learning together for a greater understanding https: //youtu. be/KBsrv. J 2 -7 x. Y

Bee Understanding Discussion ▶ Commercial Beekeeper ▶ First impression- “Not as much ‘neonic dust’ coming off as he thought ▶ He doesn’t necessarily think neonics are the biggest problem, but its one among several ▶ Solutions- talk farmers into a different type of spray or other systemic pesticides. Beekeepers use pesticides to, they both need them. ▶ ▶ Communication and cooperation is the key; solutions instead of finger pointing Entomologist ▶ Sees that natural forage is being replaced by corn and soybean – which bees don't pollinate ▶ Pathogens/Pests, Poor Nutrition, & Pesticides ▶ Solutions-ask farmers to plant native pollinator species around edges and in ditches around the crops ▶ The issue is too big for beekeepers to deal with it alone

Bee Understanding Discussion ▶ Crop Consultant ▶ Fingers are getting pointed first at modern farm production ▶ Solutions- beekeepers should register hives and farmers should be diligent in checking the register so they can work together ▶ Greater ▶ awareness – Were all in this together Farmer ▶ Even though corn doesn’t need the honeybee, if something he is using is harmful he wants to correct it and not be a hindrance to bees ▶ ‘Neonic-dust’ ▶ What’s happening to bees is more than one main cause, there needs to be more dialogue and work together Overall, beekeepers have generally been alone. Corporations are always looking to better agriculture and produce more food. The feeling is that now its time to work together and help the bees!!

Evolution of information: An evaluation of the popular 2010 Documentary: Vanishing of the Bees ▶ The film has good information about bees in general, their history, biology, and how they are important. ▶ It really touches on the first era of discovering that there was something wrong with the bees and raises very important questions. If does a great job at inspiring an audience to do something about an issue ▶ However, its an older documentary and there is sometimes less of a feeling of scientific approach and more of a one sided finger pointing approach. ▶ At the French/American beekeepers meeting the French ultimately say that there is a multitude of factors affecting bees and pesticides were the icing on the cake. If we just focus on pesticides alone we will get nowhere, but the video sheds less light on this ▶ What about beekeepers that don’t believe in using preventative methods or treatment for varroa mites and other pests or diseases. ▶ What about migratory beekeeping and genetic overbreeding too? The film barely touches on this ▶ Almost 10 yrs ago some ideas for what was happening to bees were cell phones, rapture, and even conspiracies of Russian using satellites to kill bees, look how far we have come ▶ Time for a Vanishing of the Bees: Part Two? ?

Evolution of information: An evaluation of the popular 2010 Documentary: Vanishing of the Bees ▶ Point being: Research is evolving and we are learning more everyday. What we can learn from the Bee Understanding video is that we should be open minded, practice good communication and learn what we can do on all sides to fix the issues Image credit: Keri Carstens

Interacting Stressors Scientists are focused on the interaction of multiple factors: • • Parasites (Varroa mites) Diseases (Nosema, bacteria and viruses) Weather patterns and changing climate Beekeeping practices • Transportation stress • Lack of genetic diversity • Artificial food sources • Pest management within colonies Pesticides (used in hives and in agriculture) Lack of suitable habitat Lack of varied diet Queen failure Information Sources: U. S. Department of Agriculture and U. S. Environmental Protection Agency National Honey Bee Health Stakeholder Conference Steering Committee, 2013. Report on the National Honey Bee Health Stakeholder Conference (October 2012). http: //www. usda. gov/documents/Report. Honey. Bee. Health. pdf

Help for Bees-Wider Perspectives ▶ Commercial pollination changes ▶ Under planting fruit trees to maintain diverse landscape ▶ Productive land use and healthy wild populations can coexist ▶ Land use changes ▶ Land sparing vs. land sharing (controversy about which is better) ▶ Sparing maximizes crop yields on fewer, larger farms = bigger farms but more areas of untouched wildlife ▶ Sharing promotes wildlife friendly, smaller scale/yielding farms = smaller farms but more wilderness in an equivalent area is used ▶ ▶ Fighting disease ▶ Research to understand utilize a bees gut microbiome ▶ Breeding disease resistant bees Ongoing scientific research ▶ Radar tagging to understand bee behavior ▶ Raising bees in the lab to understand how larvae are affected (most research involves adults)

Help for Bees-Individual Roles ▶ Create Pollinator Gardens ▶ Plant, Grow, Fly-Blank Park Zoo ▶ Manage your expectations and consider how you want your garden to look as well ▶ Many native plants can get very tall and look weedy and unkempt ▶ Not only wildflower gardens are helpful. Trees, shrubs, veggies and herbs too! ▶ Go to local greenhouses, ask if they treat with insecticides ▶ Be cautious of pre-made packets, these can contain invasive species. If you choose one make sure it is native to your region ▶ Pollinator Partnership ▶ Guides and information on what to plant and where to get them in handout ▶ Its not just about honeybees, all bees are important so plant a variety to add good nutritional value ▶ Eva Crane and Dr. Dale Hill ▶ Not ready for that? ▶ Join a conservation campaign to help plant habitats in conservation sectors

Help for Bees-Individual Roles ▶ Keeping Bees ▶ Take into account that we must be responsible beekeepers to minimize spreading disease and pressure on wild pollinators. There are many opinions and lots of information out there so make sure what you are reading/watching is a reliable source such as. edu or. org websites or well accredited persons and books. Be sure to do your own research and do what is right for your purposes and region of the country, methods in Texas are not the same as Iowa. ▶ Bee Apart Bee Together- Erin Miller runs the East Central Iowa Beekeeping classes ▶ http: //www. beeapartbeetogether. com/ ▶ The Bee Book ▶ Scientific Beekeeping. com –Randy Oliver ▶ Consider cost and investment-it’s a commitment ▶ Not quite your thing? ▶ Try building a bee hotel for solitary bees

Bibliography Blank Park Zoo-Plant. Grow. Fly Webpage. https: //www. blankparkzoo. com/conservation/plantgrowfly/create-your-garden/ Carstens, Keri -Pollinator Health Team. Interview by Bonnie Steinhauser. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Bee Outreach Program. 9 June. 2017. Chadwick, F. , Alton, S. , Tennant, E. S. , Fitzmaurice, B. , & Earl, J. (2016). The Bee Book. new York: DK Publishing Crespin, R. , Olsen-Harbich, E. , & Mc. Culley, C. (2016). The Bee Understanding Film Project Des Moines Backyard Beekeepers – 11 Anonymous Surveys taken by Bonnie Steinhauser. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Bee Outreach Program. 13 June. 2017. Honeybee Health Coalition Website. Information Retrieved June-July 2017. http: //honeybeehealthcoalition. org/ Jason Foley-Master Beekeeper. Interview by Bonnie Steinhauser. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Bee Outreach Program. 12 June. 2017. Krebs, Laurie & Cis, Valerie. (2009). The Beeman. Great Britain: Barefoot Books. Langworthy, G. Henein, M. , Erskine, J. , Gazecki, W. , and Page, E. (2011). Vanishing of the bees. http: //www. vanishingbees. com/ Lowry, Jessie-Blank Park Zoo: Plant Grow Fly program-Phone Interview by Bonnie Steinhauser. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Bee Outreach Program. June. 2017. Miller, Erin-Master Beekeeper. Interview by Bonnie Steinhauser. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Bee Outreach Program. 12 June. 2017. Montana Pollinator Education Project-Bee Cards. http: //agr. mt. gov/Ag-in-the-Classroom. K-8 projects. Nature Kenya Bee hotel. http: //discoverpollinators. org/learn-to-build-your-own-wild-bee-hotel/ Pollinator Partnership Website. Information Retrieved June-July 2017. http: //pollinator. org Reiman Gardens Website. Information Retrieved June-July 2017. http: //www. reimangardens. com/ Slade, Suzanne & Schwartz, Carol. (2011). What if There Were No Bees? Minnesota: Capstone Publishing