honey bees

A collaboration between researchers of three universities in Sweden led to very interesting findings that have been published in the scientific journal called PLoS ONE. What were these findings about and why can there be a link with antibiotics?

In fact, it was discovered that honey bees possess inside their stomachs a lot of healthy lactic acid bacteria. These bacteria may be beneficial for the health of honey bees.

Similarly, a post on the Swedish site slu.se presents the following:

Honey bees possess an abundant, diverse and ancient lactic acid bacteria microbiota in their honey crop with beneficial effects for bee health, defending them against microbial threats.

Furthermore, it seems that this natural defense that honey bees have is already being used in the creation of honey. Effectively, it is believed that when honey bees collect the nectar and the pollen, harmful microorganism are contained in these products from flowers. However, these harmful microorganisms are removed by the bacteria inside the honey bees’ stomachs. Accordingly, a release by the University of Lund mentions:

The researchers have also seen that large quantities of harmful microorganisms such as bacteria, yeasts and fungi are found in the nectar and pollen that the bees collect from flowers to make honey and bee bread. These microorganisms could destroy the food through fermentation and mould in just a couple of hours, but in fact, the healthy bacteria in the honey stomach kill all the microorganisms.

Nevertheless, a very important point derived from the work of the researchers is that honey bees that are treated with antibiotics may have this natural line of defense deteriorated. Effectively, the article quoted earlier also states that:

The bees have their own defense system against disease in the form of cooperative healthy bacteria. However, this system is weakened in commercially farmed bees that are treated with antibiotics, suffer stress, eat synthetic food instead of their own honey and bee bread and are forced to fly in fields sprayed with pesticides.

Consequently, with the need to face, if possible, the colony collapse disorder it may be advantageous for beekeepers to know about the fact that treating bees with antibiotics is not necessarily helping them.

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Researchers have found that when honey bees are faced with a fungal infection they use propolis to fight the fungus. What is propolis? Propolis is a mixture of plant resign and wax that honey bees may use as lining inside the hive. However, while this substance may not be appreciated by beekeepers because it can make it more difficult to open the hive, researchers have found that propolis has antibacterial and antifungal properties.

Effectively, when honey bees are faced with a fungal infection they may significantly increase the amount of propolis brought to the hive. Effectively, Jennifer Welsh of LiveScience writes in an article the following:

The researchers found that when facing a fungal threat the bees brought in 45 percent more of the waxy creation to line their hives, and physically removed fungally-infected larvae from their area.

Nonetheless, the fact that bees brought in more propolis is not the main element proving that this natural product had antifungal properties. In fact, it was remarked that the infection was reduced after the use of propolis. Similarly, Lans in an article published on the site IndiaTimes.com mentioned that:

Researchers know propolis is an effective antifungal agent because they lined some hives with a propolis extract and found that the extract significantly reduced the rate of infection.

Furthermore, honey bees appeared to be able to distinguish sometimes a fungus that was harmful to another one that wasn’t. To illustrate this point, it can be read in an article published on the HuffingtonPots.com by Jennifer Welsh that:

The bees were even aware of which fungi were harmful and which weren’t. When infected with fungus that didn’t cause disease, the bees didn’t ramp up their propolis deposition in response.

This being, the propolis seemed to be limited in defending the colony against pathogenic bacteria as noted on a domain-b.com webpage:

Honey bee colonies infected with pathogenic bacteria did not bring in significantly more propolis – despite the fact that the propolis also has antibacterial properties. ”There was a slight increase, but it was not statistically significant,” Simone-Finstrom says.

Thus here is more information on how interesting honeybees are. It appears that they have very good reflexes against fungal infection that could help us better understand the world more.

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Looking for information about the importance of honey bees can lead to learn that honey bees are important pollinators. However, what is pollination?

A definition I have found to be interesting was mentioned in a document on the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ website, fao.org. The definition is the following:

Pollination is transfer of pollen from the anther (the male part of the flower) to the stigma (the female part of the flower). Some plants can pollinate themselves: in this case, the pollen passes from the anther to the stigma inside the same flower, and this is called self-pollination. Other plants need pollen to be transferred between different flowers or different individuals of the plant. This is cross-pollination.

Many plants can be pollinated both ways. Plants can be pollinated by wind or animals.

This being, we can appreciate more the importance of honey bees when we take into consideration the fact that a lot of the food we eat results from their pollination.

As the definition for the term pollination noted, some plants need to be pollinated by animals. Effectively, billions of dollars of food produced yearly in Arizona benefits from the work of honey bees. Accordingly, a document on the University of Arizona’s website states the following:

Some plants, for example grasses, produce light pollen grains that may be carried by the wind or water from plant to plant. Other plants need help from insects, birds, or bats for successful pollination. Without this assistance, fruit and/or seeds would not be formed. In fact, about a third of the food Americans eat is the direct result of pollination by insects.

More than 100 agricultural crops in the United States are pollinated by bees. This means bees are important, if not essential, for the production of nearly $7 billion worth of agricultural crops produced annually in Arizona. Examples of bee pollinated crops include watermelons, cantaloupe, citrus and apples (see story below).

The situation is such that it is not only flowers that profit from bees but also human beings and animals. Nonetheless, because the idea of honey bees pollinating food crops could more understood with a practical example, the next lines from the University of Arizona’s site could help a person better grasp how essential honey bees are to the production of apples:

Did you ever wonder where apples come from or how an apple tree makes apples? Actually, apples start as flowers on the apple tree. Without the help of bees though, the flowers would bloom and then wither and drop without ever having a chance to become an apple. For a flower to become an apple, the pollen that is produced by the flowers on one apple tree must be transferred to the flowers on another tree. The pollen is moved between trees by bees who visit the flowers to collect nectar and pollen. Moving pollen between flowers is called cross-pollination.

It is important that the lives of honey bees be protected. However, I believe that it is vital that the world come back to a more natural way of life.

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