The Honey Bee as a Significant task in Agriculture Essay

Sue Monk Kidd has carefully crafted a book rich in symbolism with special emphasis on bees. Each section’s heading features the inner workings of this communal society (Emanuel, Catherine, B. 3). An epigraph at the beginning relating to bees sets the tone for the each chapter. The first chapter epigraph states: The Queen, for her part, is the unifying force of the community; if she is removed from the hive, the workers very quickly sense her absence. After a few hours, or even less, they show unmistakable signs of queenlessness.” Man and Insects.

The honey bee is vital to an estimated $117 billion annual production of crops through pollination within the United States more than a half of the food that humans consume has a correlation with the bee either directly or indirectly. The USDA reports the following food products would be immediately damaged if no bees were available to pollinate:

Since the late 1990s, beekeepers around the world have observed the mysterious and sudden disappearance of bees, and report unusually high rates of decline in honeybee colonies. Bees do more than just make honey! Bee transfer pollen and seeds from one flower to another, fertilizing the plant so it can grow and produce food. Cross-pollination helps at least 30 percent of the world's crops and 90% affects our food. The sweet fruits humans eat such as, strawberries, mangoes, grapes, apples, and bananas would not be the same taste wise as they are now. We simply couldn’t live in the same world if it weren’t for the bees.

When it comes time for a new queen to emerge and take the place of the old queen, the previous queen starts to lay eggs in queen cups. This usually happens around the time when swarming, or the reproduction of these bees, is in favorable condition. These cups eventually become specially constructed queen cells relatively similar to the shape of a peanut. Workers will only complete the queen cell once the queen lays an egg in it. The queen larva develops differently from the other worker bees because it is fed royal jelly very heavily compared to the other larvae in the hive, which are only fed the royal jelly for two days after they are born. This difference in their diet allows the queen larva to develop into a sexually mature female. The royal jelly is made from digested pollen or nectar and mixed with a chemical that is produced from a gland on the head of a nursing bee (Haydak, M. 1970).

What you may not know is that honeybees play a huge roll in America’s agriculture, whether it is pollinating alfalfa hay to feed your horse or pollinating that apple you eat every morning for breakfast. Honeybees pollinate about one-third of crops species in the U.S. (Vanishing Bees, 2008). Bees pollinate a lot more than you would think a few more examples are almonds, avocadoes, cucumbers and peanuts.

After a few hours, or even less, they show unmistakable signs of queenlessness” (Kidd 1). I did not know the symbol of bees could relate to this story in the way that it did. Bees plays a significant symbols because of the fact that the ruler of the hives is ruled by a single Queen Bee. Similar to August as she is the Virgin Mary and the other members are called the Daughters of Mary. Also, beehives are very protected in the manner of the not clearly knowing what is going on inside. However, we know that there is a system and own ways to care for their homes. Just like the boathouse, they have their rituals such as praying, collecting honey and celebrations. As well as making sure that the system runs smoothly as everyone has a significant job and making sure that one another is safe in the home. This reminds me of the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel. More specifically when Pi is stranded on an island with a tiger, Pi is completely exposed to a new environment and has to adapt to all changes. At first, he dislikes the tiger, but soon his interpretations of him as he gets to know and bond with

There are three types of bees in a hive; namely, the queen, worker bees and drones. There is only one queen per hive and her role is to produce more bees (4). This is done by mating with the male bees. After mating, the queen can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day (4). Drones are male bees and their role is to mate with the queen. Drones spend a considerable amount of time inside the hive; in addition, during early winter

When male bees are ready to leave the comfort of their cocoon, they can easily poke their heads out and produce a sound alerting several grown females that they are in need of assistance. After the female bees help the new male out of his cell, the male is instantly fed and nourished. This treatment differs greatly from that of the young female bees. They instead have to fight their way out of their cell without any assistance, in addition, once they have finally managed to break through the barriers, they go straight to work in the hive, beginning with cleaning their own cell. This can relate back to the 1960s in saying that the male bees represent the caucasians and the female bees represent all African Americans.

Bees are vital to farmers and ranchers because they’re necessary to keep their crops reproducing.

Brit Amos begins talks about the loss of foods stating that “Commercial beehives pollinate over a third of {North} America’s crops and that web of nourishment encompasses everything from fruits like peaches, apples, cherries, strawberries and more, to nuts like California almonds, 90 percent of which are helped along by the honeybees” (Amos). Honey bees are much more famous for producing honey. However, most people do not know that “the benefits of honey go beyond its great taste” (“Health Benefits of Honey”). For example, “The 3 key health benefits of honey are related to the fact that: 1. Honey is nature's energy booster 2. Honey is a great immunity system builder 3. Honey is a natural remedy for many ailments” (“Health Benefits of Honey”). It is interesting to think that something as small and insignificant as the honey bee can provide us with so many basic needs.

First the queen lays the egg which takes three days. Then the worker feeds the egg and this takes five days. Once the worker seals off the egg in the hive, the larva becomes a pupa and this takes thirteen days. Once the pupa are fully developed, they hatch and come out. The life spanned for the worker bees is five to six weeks.

“Crop Pollination by Bees” expresses the history and nature of the western honey bee and the pollination of solitary bees. The book highlights the importance of using bees as natural pollinators, why it aids the population of bees, and how the use of bee pollination can result in finer crops. According to the article, research from Washington and British Columbia showed that optimizing honey bee pollination resulted in:

There are several different species of insect pollinators, but the bees in general make up sixty-two percent of them. Honeybees make up thirty-nine percent of that number, and the other twenty-three is composed of several different species of bees. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one-third of the homo-sapiens diet is insect pollinated and honeybees are accountable for eighty percent of the pollination of that one-third. The population of the honeybees in the United States has been noticeably declining from the late 1990 's, so the threat to the majority of the world food supply is slowly increasing as our pollinators population decreases.

Honey bees, feared by the misinformed and admired by the intelligent, are dying. The interest in bees from many environmentalists is not for a sudden cause, as this issue is not new to the world. Honey bees as a population have been in decline for years but have yet to reach the endangered species list anywhere in the United States except for Hawaii. Many people kill bees that buzz around joyfully, simply because they are afraid of being stung by them; however, a vast majority of bees do not sting and the others do not care. This unfortunate commonality is not even one of the top causes of the worldwide epidemic of honey bees. Although bees are jokingly idolized on the internet in pictures and videos as a result of a popular children’s movie, their population decline is in fact quite serious. Honey bees and other pollinators like birds and insects ensure the pollination of flowering plants and crops all around the globe. Not only do honey bees pollinate plants that produce the foods that humans eat, but they also pollinate trees that produce clean oxygen for Earth. Without honey bees, the world as we know it could soon end, due to carbon dioxide pollution and lack of farmable foods. The population of honeybees and other important pollinator-bee species is dwindling due to a dilemma known to scientists as colony collapse disorder (CCD) because of the use of bee-killing pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, the decrease of flower meadows in the world, and the general increase

Queens emerge from fertilized eggs, and they are responsible for laying eggs and produce Queen Mandibular Pheromone. Queens are raised from worker eggs (in optimal cases), and they are made to be queens by getting fed with an extensive amount of royal jelly. The queen is ready to mate after the 25th day after emerging, and if the weather permitted it, you might find the new queen’s fertile eggs on 28th day. A queen usually lasts for about 3 years, but there are stories about queens still laying well after 7 years! There are three events which make the bees to raise a new