We often hear of "cream of the crop," but the honey bee is  the "queen of the crops."

Honey bees are crucial to California’s $32 billion agriculture industry. They  pollinate more than 90 different fruit, nut and vegetables crops in the state, says Cooperative Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty.
 

Can you name a fruit or nut crop that absolutely depends on honey-bee pollination? So much so that no commerical crop could be produced without cross pollination?  No, not tomatoes! Here are some: almond, avocado, apple (most varieties), apricot (some varieties), cherry, chestnut, lychee fruit, peach (some varieties), pear (some varieties) plum, pomegranate, prune, sunflower, tangelo and tangerine.

Vegetable seed crops dependent on honey-bee pollination? Among them: asparagus, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celery, Chinese cabbage, collards, cucumber, kale, kohlrabi, leek, melon, mustard, onion, parsley, parsnip, pumpkin, radish rutabaga, squash, turnip and watermelon.

“One third of the American diet is pollinated by bees,” Mussen said.

California leads the nation in almond production, producing nearly all of the crop. “With around 660,000 acres currently in production, and branches bent nearly to the ground on many trees, the industry is due to set another record in nut production (1.46 billion pounds) and production income,” Mussen said. Each acre requires two hives for pollination.

UC Davis forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey is a genius, to be sure. Show him a fly and he'll tell you exactly what it is and what it's all about.

I shot this photo at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis. The honey bee looked huge and the fly, tiny. There they were together. (Ah, if you let your imagination run wild, there's a children's book there! Once upon a time, a bee and a fly...)

The fly is a minute black scavenger fly (Scatopsidae). You see these flies around decomposing matter (in this case, dead bees). After all, worker bees live only four to six weeks in the summer. During that time, they encounter all sorts of killers, such as diseases, pesticides, parasites, stress, climate change, intruders, and the mysterious colony collapse disorder).

Kimsey, an adjunct professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology, is known for not only his expertise on flies and his courtroom testimony, but his award-winning teaching.  I'm not sure which is the most popular: the CSI television series or Kimsey's classes. (My bet: his classes!)

Wife Lynn Kimsey, a  fellow entomologist, chairs the UC Davis Department of Entomology and directs the Bohart Museum of Entomology.

When I visited a local farmers' market in late September, a UC Davis animal science major mentioned how much she enjoyed his class. "Kimsey, that's it!" she said. "Dr. Kimsey. He's really good."

He is, and he's a genius, too!

What are insect pollinators worth to the global economy?

Well, it's a lot less than the Wall Street bailout...er...rescue plan.

Recent research published in the journal Ecological Economics  reveals just how important insect pollinators are.

A Eureka Alert press release issued by the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres says that a team of French and German scientists found that the "worldwide economic value of the pollination service provided by insect pollinators, bees mainly, was $153 billion in 2005 for the main crops that feed the world."

That amounts to 9.5 percent of the total value of the world agricultural food production.

The study says that fruit and vegetables account for about a third of that total. The bee shortage has already hurt growers and consumers worldwide. Pollinator disappearance "would translate into a consumer surplus loss estimated between $190 to $310 billion," the news release says.

A Sept. 26 article in Business Week noted that "California almond growers, who require 1.5 million bee colonies for pollination, are renting hives for $200 each, up from $35 two years ago. In China, where pesticide overuse has killed off pollinators in some fruit orchards, farm workers have resorted to dabbing pollen into blooms by hand."

California's growing almond acreage, which now exceeds 700,000, requires two hives per acre. Our state does not have enough bees to pollinate the almonds, so bees are trucked in all over.

Honey bee researchers think that stress may be one of the factors in the declining bee population.  Other factors: malnutrition, diseases, pesticides, parasites and changing climates. 

Colony collapse disorder, a phenomonon characterized by bees mysteriously abandoning their hives, is probably due to those multiple factors, according to UC Davis apiculturist Eric Mussen.

The declining bee population, the growing need for pollination, and the burgeoning U.S. financial crisis--those issues should concern us all.

A bee on a ball.

When it flowers, the button-willow (Cephalanthus occidentalis), also known as willow, buttonbush, honey ball, and button ball (oh, that's so close to butter ball!) attracts honey bees and butterflies like you wouldn't believe.

The ball-like flowers look like pincussions and it's fascinating to watch the honey bees buzz in and out of "the spikes."

UC Davis apiculturist Eric Mussen says it's a favorite of honey bees.

The button-willow is a small tree or bush that grows along stream beds.  We spotted this one (below) on restored native pollinator habitat in Yolo County. 

Back in 1931,  UC Davis entomologist G. H. Vansell listed 175 species of plants as good "nectar yielders" in his still-authoritative UC publication, Nectar and Pollen Plants of California. Vansell wrote that "six of the most important sources of nectar in California are the sages (Salvia), alfalfa, orange, wild buckwheats, starthistle and Christmas berry; of these, the sages, wild buckhweats and Christmas berry are native."

Vansell mentioned that the button-willow, because of its riparian location, "is abundantly supplied with moisture and is easily 'worked' by bees."

It still is.