- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Titled "Robert E. Page, Jr.: The Spirit of the Bee," it's a great article chronicling his life, his love of bees, and his massive number of achievements. Rice captured it well.
Rob, a native of Bakersfield and now 74, received his doctorate in 1980 from UC Davis, studying with major professor Norman Gary and doctoral research mentor Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. He advanced to professor and chair of the Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology). A second career emerged when Arizona State University (ASU) recruited him.
Today Page holds the titles of ASU University Provost Emeritus and Regents Professor Emeritus as well as UC Davis Distinguished Emeritus Professor and Emeritus Chair of the UC Davis Entomology Department.
Page is known for his research on honey bee behavior and population genetics, particularly the evolution of complex social behavior. One of his most salient contributions to science was to construct the first genomic map of the honey bee, which sparked a variety of pioneering contributions not only to insect biology but to genetics at large.
Page pioneered the use of modern techniques to study the genetic basis of social behavior evolution in honey bees and other social insects. He was the first to employ molecular markers to study polyandry and patterns of sperm use in honey bees. He provided the first quantitative demonstration of low genetic relatedness in a highly eusocial species.
He is "arguably the most influential honey bee biologist of the past 30 years," his peers say.
At UC Davis, Page worked closely with Laidlaw. Together they published many significant research papers and the landmark book, “Queen Rearing and Bee Breeding” (Wicwas Press, 1998), considered the most important resource book for honey bee genetics, breeding, and queen rearing.
For 24 years, from 1989 to 2015, Page maintained a UC Davis honey bee-breeding program, managed by bee breeder-geneticist Kim Fondrk. Their contributions include discovering a link between social behavior and maternal traits in bees. Their work was featured in a cover story in the journal Nature. In all, Nature featured his work on four covers from work mostly done at UC Davis.
Page authored two books: The Spirit of the Hive: The Mechanisms of Social Evolution (Harvard University Press, 2013) and the Art of the Bee: Shaping the Environment from Landscapes to Societies (Oxford University Press, 2020). In 2023, he launched a publicly accessible YouTube Channel, https://youtube.com/@artofthebee.
When Rice asked Page "Who was the most influential person in your education," Page replied: "Today, all my research approaches, the way I thought about things, everything I did I can point back to four people. Norm Gary taught me the importance of knowing behavior and having good behavioral assays. He was superb at it. Nobody knows better what bees will do than Norm Gary, but he doesn't care much about why they do it. Which then brings me to my training in evolution from Tim Prout, who was an evolutionary biologist and population geneticist. He taught me population genetics, which I use to develop a population way of thinking about the work that I do. Harry Laidlaw taught me the value of breeding and the value of attention to detail. When we wrote papers together, we went over every word. Harry believed that every word had to be there for a reason. Every word had to be right. Robert A. Metcalf, an incredible guy, really turned me on to social insects, and got me interested in using molecular and biochemical markers. Everything I did for the rest of my career came from those four people."
This week we asked Gary, now 90, what it was like to have Rob as his graduate student.
In a June 17th email, Gary wrote: “When I first met Rob Page at the beginning of his graduate studies, I was immediately impressed that he was a very exceptional student in all respects! He was enthusiastic about insect behavior, especially honey bee behavior. I became his major professor. His fascination with behavior soon evolved into behavioral genetics. Consequently, I encouraged him to conduct his graduate research under the direction of Harry Laidlaw whose research program focused on honey bee genetics."
"Rob and I shared several bee research projects, one of which involved research on honey bees to determine if insects would be adversely affected by exposure to microwaves from solar power satellites that were under consideration as a future source of energy for mankind. Rob excelled in all activities. His enthusiasm was contagious! He richly deserves the many rewards he has received during his career, especially for his superior skills in research, teaching, and leadership in every facet of the academic world.”
You may know Norm Gary as not only a professor, scientist, musician, and author but one of the world's most incredible professional bee wranglers. He used to wear full-body bee suits and play the b-flat clarinet. (See Bug Squad blog of Nov. 30, 2016). He once trained bees to fly into his mouth to collect food from a small sponge saturated with his patented artificial nectar. He holds the Guinness World record (109 bees inside his closed mouth for 10 seconds) for the stunt.
It's all about The Bees for Rob Page and Norm Gary.
It's always been about The Bees.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
When you're a honey bee and you're packing pollen and approaching your landing--an artichoke thistle--it's a good idea to clean your proboscis (tongue) first.
Caught in flight: a honey bee doing a little grooming.
This one hovered like a syrphid fly or flower fly, perhaps waiting for the bee below her to move a bit as a few seconds lapsed.
"A long tongue (proboscis--pronounced pro-BAH-sis) is used to suck nectar from flowers," Explains Norman Gary, UC Davis emeritus professor of entomology, in his book, Honey Bee Hobbyist: The Care and Keeping of Bees. "It functions as a straw, yet it unfolds and retracts like a miniature landing gear. Extemely sensitive taste buds at the tip trigger the sucking response for the intake of nectar and water."
The honey bee touched down, the grooming complete, and the other bee gone.
Just a few seconds in the life of a honey bee cleaning its "miniature landing gear" before it lands on another thistle.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Christmas in May?
When it's in full bloom, the aptly named "tower of jewels," Echium wildpretii, which can tower as high as 10 feet, looks very much like a Christmas tree. Think of the brilliant red blossoms as red bells.
Native to the island of Tenerife, it belongs to the family Boraginaceae. It's a biennial, meaning that it takes two growing seasons to complete its life cycle. In the Vacaville, Calif., area, it blooms in its second year, around mid-April and diminishes by mid-May.
Honey bees love its nectar and pollen. And the pollen? It's blue, which is always a surprise when beekeepers open their hives. "Where did that blue come from?"
Scilla sibirica (wood squill) and Epilobium angustifolium (fireweed) also yield blue pollen as does Gilia tricolor (bird's eye). Borage pollen is a bluish-gray.
"The importance of pollen to the health and vigor of the honey bee colony cannot be overstated," writes emeritus entomology professor Norman Gary of the University of California, Davis, in his best-selling book, "Honey Bee Hobbyist, The Care and Keeping of Bees."
"Honey satisfies the bees' carbohydrate requirements, while all of the other nutrients---minerals, proteins, vitamins and fatty substances--are derived from pollen. Nurse bees consume large amounts of pollen, converting it into nutritious secretions that are fed to developing larvae. During an entire year, a typical bee colony gathers and consumes about 77 pounds of pollen."
Gary adds: "Pollen in the plant world is the equivalent of sperm in the animal world. Fertilization and growth of seeds depends upon the transfer of pollen from the male flower parts (anthers) to the receptive female parts (stigmas)."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If a queen bee were to celebrate Mother's Day (and she won't because she's too busy laying eggs), what a crowded festivity that would be.
Bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey of Washington State University, former manager of the Harry H.Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis, describes the queen as an "egg-laying machine."
"She's the mother of all the bees in the hive," saysCobey, who studied at UC Davis with Harry Hyde Laidlaw Jr., (1907-2003), "the father of honey bee genetics." During the peak season, the queen can lay up to 2000 eggs a day. That amounts to about 50,000 to 80,000 workers (sterile females) and 1000 to 2000 drones (males) in the hive.
On her maiden flight, the queen bee mates with some 12 to 25 drones in mid-air and then she heads back to the hive to lay eggs for the rest of her life, says Cobey, internationally renowned for her Carniolan bees and classes on instrumental insemination and bee breeding (stock improvement).
Yes, every bee in the hive has the same mother. Not so with the fathers.
In his book, The Honey Bee Hobbyist, the Care and Keeping of Bees, Norman "Norm" Gary, UC Davis emeritus professor of apiculture, writes: "All bees in a colony develop from eggs laid by the queen, so they all share the same mother. All bees in a colony develop from eggs laid by the queen, so they all share the same mother. But as a population, they typically have around 15 fathers."
As Gary points out: "The queen bee has no control over the drones that inseminate her. (The virgin queen) mates while flying, never inside the hive."
It's a matriarchal society. The girls (worker bees) do all the work; they serve as nurse maids, nannies, royal attendants, builders, architects, foragers, dancers, honey tenders, pollen packers, propolis or "glue" specialists, air conditioning and heating technicians, guards, and undertakers. So their abbreviated life (during the summer the life span of a worker bee is only four to six weeks) is not surprising. The drones, or males, serve only a reproductive function. Once they they mate, they die.
Honey bee geneticist Robert E. Page Jr., distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis (and emeritus provost, Arizona State University) studied with Laidlaw for his doctorate at UC Davis. He pays tribute to Laidlaw in his book, The Art of the Bee: Shaping the Environment from Landscapes to Societies.
In Chapter Nine, "The Song of the Queen," Page reprinted a poem by E. B. White (Dec. 15, The New Yorker) objecting to instrumental insemination. White opined in the poem that the queen bee should "mate with whatever drone" she encounters.
Page reprinted Laidlaw's response, published in the San Francisco Chronicle, which said in part:
Her offspring slave throughout the day,
They feed her children as best they may
They would like to see a moment
Directed toward stock improvement.
If you're interested in bees and beekeeping, or just curious about these amazing superorganisms, these books read well on Mother's Day...and any other day.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Well, how about "bees in the bell tower"?
The Epiphany Episcopal Church of Vacaville, Calif., has just that: bees in its bell tower. (See Bug Squad blog, Blessed Are the Bees.)
When consulted, veteran bee scientist, author and former professional bee wrangler Norman Gary, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, recommends "let them bee."
"Yes, it looks like an established colony in the bell tower," the Sacramento area resident wrote in an email. "At that location and height there should be no interaction between the bees and people. They are pollinating plants within at least a one-mile radius from the church so they should be regarded as being beneficial. There is a good chance they will not survive more than a year because they probably will succumb to mites, bee diseases, and parasites. Once they die, you have the option to enclose the peak of this spiral structure with screen to prevent the entry of a swarm next year. And if they survive more than a year, then there is no problem."
The bees inside the bell tower "are probably inside a wall structure," Gary says.
Meanwhile, congregation member Carlyn Crystal, the "junior warden" or "people's warden" of the church--she addresses issues with the facility and grounds--is monitoring the situation. The bees have been there for at least two years, maybe longer, she says.
Home sweet home. And they appear to be thriving.
Gary, known internationally as "The Bee Man," holds a doctorate in entomology (apiculture) from Cornell University and served on the UC Davis entomology faculty from 1962 to 1994.
A beekeeper for seven decades and the author of Honey Bee Hobbyist: The Care and Keeping of Bees, he has written more than 100 publications, including scientific papers, book chapters and popular articles in beekeeping trade journals. He drew widespread acclaim for wearing a head-to-toe suit of clustered bees while "Buzzin' with His Bee-Flat Clarinet." (As a professional musician, he performs in area bands, but sans the bees.)
"The Bee Man" holds the Guinness World record for keeping 109 bees inside his closed mouth for 10 seconds.
You may have seen him and/or the bees he trained in action scenes in movies, television shows and commercials. His credits over the last 35 years include 18 films, including Fried Green Tomatoes; more than 70 television shows, including the Johnny Carson and Jay Leno shows; six commercials; and hundreds of live Thriller Bee Shows in the Western states.
Gary, now 87, has been working on two research projects for the past four years. He reports he's "nearing the finish line." Both projects involve patent applications.
"The Bee Man"--aka scientist, author, musician and former professional bee wrangler--has never meet a bee he didn't like. He also maintains a keen sense of humor. "My age," he quips, "matches my IQ."
