The honeybee
The bee is of great assistance to the gardener. This furry insect is one of the best pollinators of the vegetable plot.
It is present in almost all parts of the world. It is found in farming areas, in fields, gardens, and in cities and towns, whether in moderate or in tropical zones.
They are called "honeybees" for the simple reason that they are raised and domesticated in man-made hives for the purpose of producing honey. Wild, natural colonies can be found, but they are few and far between. These are mostly found in hollow tree trunks.
The honeybee is a furry insect. This physical feature makes it an excellent pollinizing agent. Every time it leaves the hive, it gathers pollen which it then transports to the stigma of another plant of the same species. Like bumblebees and wasps, the honeybee thus plays an essential role in the pollination of plants.
Pollen-gathering bees are all female bees, which we call "worker bees". They are 12mm. long on average, and there are tens of thousands of them in a hive. Their main task is to bring nectar back to the hive to make enough honey so that the whole swarm can have sufficient food to see them through the winter.
Measurable results
According to the observations of scientists in the Canadian province of Quebec, the presence of hives greatly increases the productivity of plants. For example, they noticed that in the case of clover, pollination increases the productivity of the plant four-fold in the area around the hive. Pollination is especially efficient for fruit trees like apple and orange trees, and also for vegetable plants like sunflowers, tomatoes, peppers, broadbeans and cucumbers.
Although bees may have their preferences (heather, clover, mint, rosemary, lavender, lime tree, acacia, chestnut tree, lilac, thyme, showy stonecrop, caryopteris, etc..) the plants from which they gather pollen and nectar vary throughout the season.
An endangered species
The recent controversy surrounding the use of certain insecticides like Gaucho make us realise the extent to which bee colonies are dependent on the quality of their environment. To help the bee play its full roll in the polllination of plants, it is imperative that we limit the use of pesticides, especially within a radius of 2.5 kms., on average, around a hive.