Do on your native bees, some have long tongues. Some have short tongues, they've developed with certain flowers or certain flowers and certain bees that are codependent. So in other words that the bees hatched the same time the particular flower flowers. And then what happens is, if we throw it off to climate change or anything like that, one or the other will disappear. So in fact, if we lost all our pollinators now be so one of the primary pollinators. If we lost our pollinators today mankind's dead and for years,
more than 400 species of bees make their home in Illinois, and 4000 species can be found throughout North America. This is random acts of knowledge presented by Heartland Community College, I'm your host, Steve fast. Without bees, about 80% of plants wouldn't be able to reproduce. So protecting that resource has become a priority for those concerned with the ecosystem that supports agriculture and so much more. Today we are speaking with a naturalist who keeps bees and who studies any changes in how these buzzing pollinators are interacting with their ecosystem in their home.
My name is Patty Crandall, I typically go by PK. I am a beekeeper, but I also try to encourage people to learn about native bees also, because some people assume honey bees are native bees and are not so educating people because they've heard the term save the bees. It is more than just becoming a honey beekeeper. There's much more to it than that.
How did you become a honey beekeeper since that is something you do?
Well, I decided to retire from my job of teaching at Metcalf. So what I needed to do is find something to occupy myself. My sister has been a beekeeper in California for a number of years, but then so I just thought they saw class and so I took a class in college. I thought I think I can do this. So I have been active in our local beekeeping association is central Illinois beekeeping association. So I've been pretty active in that.
So you say that not all bees that we see our native bees? Correct. I believe there are something like 400
their species species different species in Illinois. There are 4000 in the Americas. Honeybees are actually European, and they are a classified a livestock, their lifestyle, even though they're both bees, their lifestyle is much different. native bees, they come from 12th of an inch to the size of a quarter. So you've got a wide range. You've got all sorts of colors. You've got blues and greens and reds and browns and blacks within that. But it's tough for people to kind of realize what's a B because there's a lot of yellow stinky things out there and nobody likes to get stung. native bees for the most part. Athletes albies really don't want to sting you. They are vegetarians, and you are meat. So the Wasp, on the other hand is a meat eater. They're carnivores that's belly spiders. Some of the Wasp will actually eat other bees. So these want to find their pollen and nectar. Pollen is their protein nectar is or carbohydrates for them to be able to raise their young.
You mentioned wasps are wasps native as well. Are they Wasp are
natives. Most of there's a big problem happening out in the far northwest coast. With the murder Hornet, they'll call it again, it's an import and what seems to happen quite often whether our bees are really most creatures, wherever they came from, they have developed relationships of defense and attacks within that. When you transport somebody who's not native, sometimes that balance between nature is is thrown out of whack.
Let's talk a little bit about I think, maybe, as you mentioned, there might be a misconception that many people think that all bees are honey bees. Right? Not the case. But even though honey bees have a nice agricultural component of why they're here, which is probably why they were brought here correct.
Colonies brought them because they had them over in Europe. They're native to Europe. So they said well, you don't have honey bees. We want honey and so they brought them over. But let's
talk about how all bees contribute to the pollination of plants that we have here. Absolutely Illinois.
Okay. So on your native bees, some have long tongues, some have short tongues, they have again, because they've grown up with certain flowers they've developed with certain flowers are a certain flowers and certain bees that are codependent. So in other words, that the bees hatched the same time the particular flower flowers, and then what happens is, if we throw it off through climate change or anything like that, one or the other will disappear, because if it doesn't hatch at the right time, it doesn't flower at the right time. It'll go so in fact, if we lost all our pollinators now, bees are one of the primary pollinators, wasps do a little bit not a whole lot of and your your bats and your birds. If we lost our pollinators today, mankind's dead in four years
are some of these migratory? No, they just stay in the same area. So unlike the migratory birds that might be pollinators, the bees are kind of in the same region the whole time. The bees
really don't, don't move. The bee life is not real long. It's not long enough about your native bees, they they last one season, so everybody's gone. It's a whole new crew in one season. Honey bees, the workers only live about six weeks. Rounds isn't that range. Queens might be two, three, maybe four years if the genetics is good, and everything else is good. So they really don't travel. Honeybees are traveled via man, we move our pollen right, which is good and bad, because then you are moving around pest diseases. And when you move just like if we move a house cross country we are stressed so the bees become stressed. So there's some challenges within that. But our native bees, they're they're kind of stuck where they're at. So as a
beekeeper, you say that different bees like different things to pollinate, they use different plants, native bees,
okay, honey bees are pretty generalist. So they will go for a much wider variety. A lot of your bees, other bees will too. But there are certain ones that are very specific because like I said, long tongues and short tongues makes a difference on a flower if it's a tubular flower versus a flat flower, who can pollinate it. But honey bees generally are pretty generalist.
Now I know that there are some native plants or they might not all be native, but I know that folks that are trying to grow crops want to get rid of a lot of plants because they work well with the crops. And that in some cases, that getting rid of some of those plants, I think ragweed might be one of them. I think I've heard that. It's like, are there certain things that in an effort to try to grow one thing like corn or beans, we've gotten rid of some of the pollinating plants that have contributed to bee population.
The biggest thing we've lost is the milkweed, which is the monarchs, they because they are a very specific host plant, monarchs will collect nectar from various plants. But it is more they only lay their eggs on milkweed. And that's where a lot of crops in relationship to bees, the crop planting is a little more challenging in the sense that farmers do not want bugs eating their crops, they don't want a meeting of seeds the plant or or the product. Well, the problem is sometimes we have utilized a type of neonicotinoids are called Neo next. They are a systemic insecticide. And so that means it's in the plant itself. So if the bees if you're in farm country and the bees go to the soybean, they actually ingest some of that insecticide that is in the plant to keep bugs for meeting the plant and because the farmers want their produce. And so it's challenging to find that balance between those twos and how to do it and share our world. You know, there are a lot of plants that honeybees themselves will go for. I try very hard to go with the natives because a lot of times I can find a native plant that will meet the same need look design quality that I want in a native plant even though because a lot of your non native plants they have developed to add you could say, oh no pollen so it'll won't affect your allergies. Well, no pollen means no food for the bees. So they kind of go back and forth like that. And the problem is some of our plants that you know, even when I was a kid, we thought were great plants, they planted them, but now they are actually changing our own landscape honeysuckle is a great example. It'll kill a forest, our bees like them native bees, both the honeybees love them. People love the flowers, but they will kill a forest.
If you are trying to do your part. Let's say that you've got a nice yard and you want to put in some pollinating plants. Are there any tips that you would provide? Are there certain things that you should not mix things you should mix things you should keep maybe farther away from the house, stuff like that
you got to give and take and share be willing to share the road. So you have to look at at your yard how you're going to use that yard. So you want to look at how do I use it. They're my kids playing in my dogs playing in it. Is there an area that's wet there's dry so I take those things into consideration as to what I plant. These for the most part are pretty general. So anything that you like as a flower, they will probably like also, what you have to do is take into consideration. lawn is not a healthy environment for any of the pollinators. So you may want to ditch the lawn. You may want to take into consideration the height of the plant. So okay, I'm looking out the window I'd want something that's below the window so I pick something that's shorter color wise they see differently than we do they see an ultraviolet. So pick a plant that's in your palate desire. And they will figure it out try to have plants that are early season and late season because like right now they're out. The bees are out flying looking for food source, they are getting some of the pollen off the trees. But as far as some of the nectar, it's not out there right now. The other thing is your chemical use, I had one woman is she she took a class and kind of like oh, and she told me Oh, I got this really beautiful plant. The bees loved it. I put it next on my front porch. But then she got nervous about her guests coming and getting stings. So she sprayed it to kill the bees. And I said, Okay, let's think about you want people to come in and out of your front door, take that plant you that you like, move it a little farther away where you're comfortable with the bees being on it, because you're attracting pollinators, and then you're turning around and killing them. That's not what you want to do. So you have to look at how you use your yard. Within that. Try to reduce the chemicals. There's a lot of methods of controlling insects that are not deadly to all insects. In other words, you'll see a lot of people want to use some chemicals to get their grubs and there's some other melki spores, one that will actually it's a bacteria that gets into the soil is natural, it will get rid of the grubs it takes longer is the problem people aren't willing to wait in my vegetable garden. If I have bugs. Instead of spraying you could spray in the evening when the bees are gone. But a better way might be an alternative is soapy water. Soapy water will kill insects. They breathe through their sides. So if I spray an insect with soapy water, they're going to smother so I'm keeping it where I'm targeting exactly who I want not just broad, broad base of killing everybody.
So a little while ago, you mentioned the monarch butterflies. And there has been a concern that there's been a thinning of the population of Monarch butterflies. And of course, we've all seen these reports over the last several years about colony collapse disorder for bees. Has this affected our area at all,
because the lifecycle of honey bees versus native bees than what they in that colony collapse. They looked at it more because they weren't sure why all of a sudden a colony died. What they have been finding is there's something called a varroa mite varroa mite destructor it's called in its I will equate it to a chip for bees. It's a small crustacean that gets on the bees, it's transferred and it carries viruses just like our chicks, the black chickens dog tickets, it carries viruses that are attacking the bees. Part of the difference in native bees versus honey bees. Honeybees are in colonies. native bees are primarily solitary. So in other words, you don't have that large grouping of insects. So it's the varroa mite is much more disruptive to the honeybee colonies. And so what happens in the winter it weakens it, it feeds on the bees as its pupating feeds on the bees fat. And so the bees that are hatched are infected and also weaker to start with. So they're in the wintertime when you can't get in there. That's when they would suddenly died. And that's what they're kind of finding out right now. Are native bees 70% of them are groundwaters they I don't know if you've ever seen like a little ant farm where they've got the little tunnels. So the bee will actually dig into the ground, make like little chambers puts her egg in there. She goes out and gets nectar and pollen makes a food ball bee bread, put it in with her egg. She then she digs another chamber, our native bees because they're not in that close quarters sharing everything. The mites don't seem to be affecting them as much. But the native bees the Queen does all the work as opposed to honey bees, you've got workers and they've got certain jobs. They live about three weeks inside the hive, raising the bees making Honeycomb, making honey, the drones and the queen. So the workload is shared by different groups as opposed to the native bees they have. One girl does it all she does the feeding the building and everything. So those ground feeders are probably about 60 to 70% of our native bees. They will also there's several that'll actually go into stems of plants. So they will lay their eggs and they'll put in like mason bees and leaf cutter bees. They'll go into a stem, lay an egg food ball, then put up a wall and another chamber wall and again 15 Maybe 20 within that. So something as a gardener can do is bmsc Gardener so at the end of the season, instead of cutting back to your plants all the way to the ground neaten it up a little bit but leave a 12 to 15 inch stem and those bees that will happen next year, your Bumble Bee will actually hibernate, the Queen hibernates in the leaf litter in your garden over the winter. So if you leave that leaf litter, she can get warmed up in the springtime and go out and do her business and then you clean it up. So it's okay to be a little bit of a messy gardener. A lot of times some of your flowers you can plant flowers that have a setback looking for in winters, you're kind of like okay, you can see the artistic part of that plant within itself. bmsc Gardener
I've been helping without even knowing it. Correct. One other question related to the work with honey bees, you mentioned relocating hives, and is that something that has to be done at certain points that they have to be relocated generally or has to be done for other purposes
at home, honey bee keeper for the most part, you try to put your hives where they're going to stay, say I have to dig up something I have to the septic system more building than they need kind of need to be moved. Or you really try not to move it. Now the commercial beekeepers that are pollinating different crops, they are moved on a regular basis. So they'll be in Florida for the oranges, they'll go out west to for the almonds, they go up north for the clover and some other things up in North Dakota. So they travel on semis. But as far as a home beekeeper for the most part, you really try to put it one place, they don't move easily. You have to basically have everybody home, you you kind of wait till everybody's home, what I'll call lock it up. So you shut the door. And then the next day because everybody's locked up inside moving someplace else. But then I have to have them reorient to where the front door is. And so that you kind of block the front door with some leaves or grasses or things like that. So when they come out, they realize, oh, wait a minute, something's different here, because they use the sun to orient. So if I move a hive and I just move it over six feet, the foragers who were out will actually go back to their original place and kind of like okay, where's the house, they can't see that it's just six foot away or something like that. So there's you really don't want to move hives.
What do you learn on a day to day basis watching these hives? And what are you looking for?
They don't read the same books we do all the time. They will throw us curveballs. I go in and I kind of what is the health of the hive? What's you know how many bees are in there? Do I see any pests happening? So I'm looking at just what the bees are doing. And if I if I take the time to just listen to their sound, if they're upset, they will have want to bust out your first open eyeballs. And then okay, you can tell that they're calm and go on about their work. So I I will inspect them to make sure the Queen's there make sure she's laying eggs. Make sure there's brood there's bees coming, because it does take if I don't have bees coming like the queen swarms. If I don't have a queen, that hive will die, because they won't have any babies.
What happens to the rest of them? Are they looking for the queen? What do they do?
are they what are they okay, so what honeybees will do if the hive is too full, and springtime is a is a swarm time, the bees kind of say it and it's the workers who make the decisions not actually the queen. So what the workers decide is this is too crowded half of us are going to leave, they fill up on honey, they go find a place to kind of land and then they scout out a new place for home. So about half the hive will leave with the queen and then the hive that's left they have a short window of timeframe to make a new queen. So a new queen can only be made with an egg. So an egg is in that state for three days. Then it turns into larvae and they can no longer make that a queen. So what they do is they will pick out a few eggs, the highlights there because they don't have a queen and they realize that the pheromones from that queen is no longer there and so they know there is no queen, so they will pick out a few eggs did it a special food called royal jelly. When that is fed to the bees, the larvae it will develop into a queen cell. It's a little bit of a Game of Thrones in there so they have like a dozen queen cells in there. And what happens is the first queen that hatches goes to the other queen cells and slashes them and kills them. She then goes on to mating flight and they have what they call congregation zones. So she flies up to an area and everybody knows where that singles bar is and all the boys go. And she mates with as many boys as she can, the more she can make the better fertility she has because she then comes back to the hive and she never mates again. So she has all the egg and sperm for her life.
How often does this cycle happen where you have a queen die and the Queen needs to be replaced?
It depends. Some hives do very well. Like I said the Queen can go two to four years. By the end of four years. She's usually out of the eggs and sperms that she needs to maintain that hive. in springtime they really like to swarm and leave and split. That's where me as a beekeeper I need to go in and kind of watch that there's this balance of giving them enough space that they don't feel crowded, but not too much space that they can't defend. So when I do my inspections and I try to go in every one or two weeks, I try to go in and see what's going on this time of year, I'll go in more often, when things kind of get settled, that might be the more than two to three weeks range. But right now, it's about once a week, I'm trying to go in just so they can tell me what they need or don't need within that. So it depends on my management how often they did it, the hive is a small hive, there's not enough boxes, they will swarm, they could swarm every six weeks. So that's where me as a beekeeper need to, to monitor how much space is in that hive.
So you need to create more housing for that. Because if
there's a big honey flow, in other words, there's a lot of flowers, a lot of food coming in, the workers can get carried away and actually make the queen honey bound. In other words, they fill all the little, all the cells up with honey, and the queen doesn't have a place to lay. So even though the hive may be big, there's no place for her to lay. So I'm looking for eggs and larvae in that and how much space she has. So then she will say, they'll say, Well, there's no place for me to lay so she leaves. And then because they don't have an eggs, if they don't have an eggs, they'll lose queen.
So how big of a radius is there for these colonies that they go out and pollinate? How far do they go
three to five miles, three to five miles, five miles. So you know, you want to set them up in a in a place where they don't have to go five miles because each time they fly, they're using energy and it takes more time. So if you can plant plants for him within that mile radius, you'll get a much better amount of honey,
as we wrap up here. Is there anything that you really want to take away for somebody about native bees? Is there something that everybody should know?
Everybody should know that they are our friends, they do not go after you. The yellow jackets are the ones in the fall that go after people again, they're Wasp and they they can sting multiple times. What bees if they sting will probably die, so they really don't want to sting you. So if you can avoid the chemicals and kinda ditch the yard so you don't have to mow and put in the flower beds. Our world is going to be better off. If we can take care of them. They will take care of us.
Okay, thanks for joining us today talking about bees. I've learned a whole lot I know, just about a half an hour ago.
All right, sounds good.
Patti Koranda is a naturalist a beekeeper and an educator. She joins us today to talk about native bees honeybees, and how they interact with the central Illinois environment. If you are interested in other interviews about the natural world biology or other topics, subscribe to random acts of knowledge on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you found this one. Thanks for listening
