- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Saturday, Aug. 17 is National Honey Bee Day and it's time for a tribute, a salute and a cheer, all combined into one: Go, bees!
We're glad to see concerned citizens, organizations and businesses contributing to bee research at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis.
This year the department was absolutely delighted to receive a $30,000 donation from the California State Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
State Regent Debra Jamison adopted the motto, “Bees are at the heart of our existence” and vowed to support research to help the beleaguered bees.
“Every state regent has a fund-raising project; I chose honey bees,” said Jamison, whose first name, Debra, means “bee” in Hebrew. “I have had a lifelong love and respect for bees and I spent a lot of my childhood watching them, attracting them with sugar water, catching and playing with them and even dissecting them during a time when I imagined myself to be a junior scientist.”
“Back in those days, there was an abundance of bees, usually observed by this kid in her family’s backyard full of clover blossoms—something you rarely see any more due to spraying of pre-emergents and other weed killers.”
The funds are earmarked for the lab of bee scientist/assistant professor Brian Johnson. His graduate student, Gerard Smith, researches the effect of pesticide exposure in the field on honey bee foraging behavior, and graduate student Cameron Jasper studies the genetic basis of division of labor in honey bees.
Then just last week Häagen-Dazs, a strong supporter of bee research, and the name behind the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis, announced it would donate $5 to UC Davis bee research for every download of its Häagen-Dazs Concerto Timer app--up to $75,000.
The way it works, you download the free app at I-Tunes with your I-Phone or I-Pad. You remove your carton of Häagen-Dazs premier ice cream from the freezer and point your I-Phone or I-Pad at the lid. Voila! Two minutes of concerto music, and that's just the right amount of time for your ice cream to soften or temper.
Häagen-Dazs, besides its continuing, generous support of the garden, funded the Häagen-Dazs Postdoctoral Scholar Fellowship to enable virus researcher Michelle Flenniken to study the viruses that plaque honey bees.
Then there's the group of donors that came forth to make the bee garden happen. The garden, located next to the Laidlaw facility on Bee Biology Road, was planted in the fall of 2009 as a year-around food source for the Laidlaw bees and other pollinators, as a way to raise public awareness about the plight of honey bees, and to provide visitors with ideas of what to plant in their own gardens. Donors? You can see their names on the donor page of the Laidlaw facility website. They include the garden designers (Ann F. Baker Donald Sibbett, Jessica Brainard and Chika Kurotaki); landscape contractor Cagwin & Dorward; and Wells Fargo, which funded the bee-utiful bee sculpture in the haven created by Donna Billick of Davis.
Youth worried about the plight of the honey bees came forth to help. Marin County resident Sheridan Miller began supporting bee research at age 11 and continues to do so through various fundraising projects. She's in high school now--and guess what? She's a beekeeper, too.
Periodically, people ask how to donate to UC Davis Bee Research. Just as Häagen-Dazs has an app for that (a concerto timer), the department has a donor page for that. Folks can make their choice(s). This page lists donors who supported the haven at its inception; more names will be added soon. There's also an online donor button on the Laidlaw home page.
Meanwhile, Saturday, Aug. 17 is National Honey Bee Day and a time to make our voices heard. Can't you just hear the queen bees piping?
Go, bees!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Häagen-Dazs has come up with a creative way to do so and it involves downloading a free concerto timer app on your I-Phone or I-Pad, pointing it at the lid of the brand's ice cream, and listening to a two-minute concerto until the ice cream is softened or tempered.
Two minutes is perfect for allowing the ice cream to soften or temper, the ice cream specialists say.
For every download of the concerto timer, Häagen-Dazs will donate $5 toward UC Davis bee research, up to $75,000.
Häagen-Dazs, in announcing (Aug. 8) the introduction of the Häagen-Dazs Concerto Timer app, described it as "the first iOS mobile app to integrate detailed 3D Kinect technology and video data that delivers a cutting edge augmented reality experience."
According to a press release, “The Concerto Timer app features two-minute-long music concertos that help consumers understand the exact amount of time needed to prepare their Häagen-Dazs ice cream in order to get the full, rich consistency and allow all the flavors to fully bloom. Allowing the ice cream to soften slightly – also called tempering – for two minutes enhances the texture and exposes fans to the craftsmanship of premium ingredients that is characteristic of Häagen-Dazs ice cream, gelato, sorbet and frozen yogurt."
Said Cady Behles, Häagen-Dazs brand manager: “The app concept came directly from our brand loyalists who recognized the necessity of tempering to enjoy all of the flavors in our ice cream. We took their feedback and developed an advanced mobile experience – something never seen before in the ice cream industry – that would be functional and also entertain them during the optimal time period.”
"Traditionally, augmented reality technology has involved flat video or low polygon 3D objects with a very limited and robotic range of motion," according to the news release. "Unlike other augmented reality apps, the Concerto Timer app integrates detailed 3D Kinect and video data."
"The app captures the nuances of the real violin and cello performances, enhanced with expressive particles, resulting in an ethereal and unique creative style. This approach allows the musicians to move with a fluid natural motion in 3D space."
"Developed by creative agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners and digital production company JAM3, the Häagen-Dazs Concerto Timer app is now available for download in the iTunes App Store."
Some 50 percent of Häagen-Dazs flavors are honey-bee dependent. “Honey bee colonies – which are responsible for one third of the world’s food supply — are dying at an alarming rate, posing a serious risk to our natural food supply, including many of the ingredients that define Häagen-Dazs ice cream,” according to the press release.
Häagen-Dazs has a long partnership with UC Davis. It launched the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly garden that was planted in 2009 next to the Laidlaw facility. The brand also funded Häagen-Dazs Postdoctoral Fellow, Michelle Flenniken, an insect virus researcher formerly based at UC San Francisco. She is now a research assistant professor in the Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology, Montana State University.
- Author: Betty Homer
As a follow-up to my post last month regarding a lecture that I had attended on native bees presented by Dr. Robbin Thorp, a native pollinator expert and emeritus professor in the Department of Entomology at UC Davis, I recently visited the Häagen-Dazs Bee Garden located on the UC Davis campus. For those of you who have never visited the bee garden, it consists of a half-acre parcel planted with bee-friendly plants to provide a nectar source to foraging bees year-round. The bee garden also makes for a nice destination for an afternoon picnic.
Although we have been enjoying spring-like weather in our region, mother nature is not fooled, as the bee garden still laid fairly dormant during my visit which took place the last week of February. Despite there being few flowers in bloom, a sweet fragrance, like honey, lingered in the air—no doubt a harbinger of good things to come. More birds than bees were out on the day that I visited, and the only bee that I could consistently locate, was either too busy minding her (and all worker bees are female) own business to stop for pictures, or was simply camera-shy.
When spring is in full bloom and the bee garden is at its best, consider visiting this bee habitat, as it features a nice collection/visual of plants many of our readers have heard about but perhaps have never seen up close, in person (e.g., ceanothus, autumn stonecrop, blue coneflower, rugosa rose, etc.). The bee garden will undoubtedly inspire you and your own backyard garden with its design (e.g., how bee-friendly plants are integrated with, and staggered among, edible plants (see pictures herein).
Note that the bee garden is open year-around, from dawn to dusk. Admission is free. Guided tours will be offered beginning March 1, 2013. For more information, please see http://beebiology.ucdavis.edu/HAVEN/index.html
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Compliments of Häagen-Dazs, the wildflowers will be on a quarter-acre site adjacent to the soon-to-be-implemented Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, near the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility.
The Campus Buzzway, coordinated by the Department of Entomology and the California Center for Urban Horticulture, will begin blooming in the spring.
The Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly garden scheduled to be planted in mid-October, is designed to serve as a year-around food source for honey bees, raise public awareness about the plight of honey bees and encourage visitors to plant bee-friendly gardens of their own, said entomologist Lynn Kimsey, professor and vice chair of the Department of Entomology and director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology.
“The Campus Buzzway will be a fabulous addition to the honey bee garden already under construction at our Bee Biology facility,” Kimsey said. “Both will greatly benefit our colonies and make terrific teaching opportunities.”
Dave Fujino, executive director of the California Center for Urban Horticulture, said the Campus Buzzway will boast year-round blooms and vibrant colors. “The Buzzway will transform an empty field into something beautiful and functional,” he said. “Most importantly, the flower mix will have a positive impact on the health and wellness of our local pollinator populations.”
The Queen Bee Blend is an assortment of California poppy, coreopsis (also called tickseed) and wild perennial lupine. Blue and gold are the official UC Davis colors.
The blend will offer “a long blooming season that provides food for bees all year long,” said Diane McIntyre, senior public relations manager of Haagen-Dazs.
Fujino said that the Campus Buzzway, spanning approximately 9000 square feet, will include wildflower liners and weed barriers to “provide a uniform, weed-free field of flowers for next spring.”
The Campus Buzzway was part of a national campaign, “A World Without Bees,” that Häagen-Dazs launched on college campuses in April. Students at 12 major colleges, including UC Davis, sampled the premier ice cream and voted on their favorite flower blend. The winner: the Queen Bee Blend.
Häagen-Dazs is in its second year of a national campaign to raise funds for honey bee research at UC Davis and Penn State University. Part of the brand's donations to UC Davis are being used to create the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven and the Campus Buzzway.
Honey bees are responsible for the pollination of more than 100 crops in the United States, including fruits, vegetables, nut and seeds, said Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty and a member of the Häagen-Dazs scientific board. Nearly half of all Häagen-Dazs flavors depend on bee pollination.
The Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven design is the work of a four-member Sausalito team: landscape architects Donald Sibbett and Ann F. Baker, interpretative planner Jessica Brainard and exhibit designer Chika Kurotaki. They won the internationally publicized competition earlier this year.
Sibbett is a principal with the Sibbett Group; Baker is a senior landscape architect with RRM Design Group; Brainard is an independent museum consultant; and Kurotaki is an exhibit designer who works for RRM Design Group.
The Sausalito team's design zeroed in on sustainability and visitor experience. The four interconnected gardens, “Honeycomb Hideout,” “Nectar Nook,” “Pollinator Patch” and “My Backyard” form the “physical and interpretive framework for our honey bee haven design,” the authors said. A series of trails connect the gardens. Trellises define the entry ways and reinforce the passage to the next space.
Incorporated into each of the four sections are gathering spaces that serve as orientation points for guided tours, facilitated programs and ‘chat time' with beekeepers and entomologists,” the team explained. Identification labels will help visitors know more about the plants, or what they can plant in their own yards.
The design also includes a “Learning Center” building and paths labeled “Orchard Alley,” “Save the Bee Sanctuary,” “Round Dance Circle” and “Waggle Dance Way.”
Häagen-Dazs ice cream committed $125,000 to the UC Davis Department of Entomology for the garden project. This encompasses site planning, preparation and the design competition.
Said design competition coordinator Melissa “Missy” Borel, program manager for the California Center for Urban Horticulture: “We'll not only be providing a pollen and nectar source for the millions of bees on Bee Biology Road, but we will also be demonstrating the beauty and value of pollinator gardens. My hope is that it will inspire everyone to plant for pollinators!”
A public opening of the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven and Campus Buzzway is tentatively scheduled in the fall of 2010.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Colony collapse disorder (CCD), the mysterious phenomonen characterized by honey bees abandoning their hives, is still with is, and the cause is still mysterious.
Over the past three years beekeepers throughout the United States have reported losing from one-third to 100 percent of their colonies to CCD, says UC Cooperative Extension Apiculturist Eric Mussen, a member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology Faculty since 1976 and a noted authority on honey bees.
The bees just vanish, leaving behind the queen, the immature brood (eggs, larvae and pupae) and stored food.
The calamity of CCD.
The queen, in peak season, lays about 2000 eggs a day. The worker bees serve as the nurse maids, nannies, royal attendants, heating and air conditioning specialists, foragers, guards and undertakers. They feed their mother (the queen) and their brothers, the drones. The sisters are their brothers' keepers. The drones' only function is to mate with the queen.
The worker bees pollinate about 100 crops in California, including nuts, fruits and vegetables. They just finished pollinating California's 700,000 acres of almonds. Now they're pollinating pomegranates, tangerines, lemons, squash, cucumbers and other fruits and vegetables in orchards and gardens near you.
Bring on National Pollinator Week, June 22-28.
Meanwhile, it's good to see that Häagen-Dazs Häagen-Dazs is continuing to support honey bee research at UC Davis and Pennsylvania State University. Back in February 2008, the premier ice cream brand launched an educational campaign to save the bees and just unveiled a newly updated site. One of the next projects: the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, a half-acre bee friendly garden at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, UC Davis. Designed by a Sausalito team, the haven will be implemented this summer and publicly dedicated in October.
The haven will be a year-around food source for bees and other insects, such as butterflies, bumble bees and syrphids. Other goals: to create a public awareness of the plight of the honey bee, and to educate visitors about bees and the kinds of bee friendly plants they can choose for their own gardens.
Bottom line: let's keep our bees healthy. Mussen suspects that CCD is caused by a combination of factors: malnutrition, pesticides, parasites, diseases and stress.
If CCD has a face, then two photos can tell the story. First, look at the photo of healthy bees and then look at the photo from an abandoned hive. The bee antenna poking through an abandoned cell is just plain sad.
The queen bee, the sisters, the brothers, the brood--all gone.
The calamity of CCD.