- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Bees do it. Birds do it. Even bats do it. They all help plants reproduce by carrying pollen from one flower to another. Beetles, butterflies, wasps, flies and moths are also pollinators.
About 35 percent of the food we eat depends on the assistance of bees to pollinate plants and trees so they will produce fruit, nuts or vegetables. It takes 1.6 million colonies of honey bees to pollinate California's 800,000 acres of almond trees.
Our food choices would be dramatically reduced if bees weren't around to pollinate. To illustrate what the produce section of a grocery store would look like in a world without bees, Whole Foods Market removed the products that depend on pollination from one of its stores and took a photo. See...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Summer time...and the livin' is easy.
But not for the bees. Worker bees, which live about four to six weeks, literally work themselves to death gathering nectar, pollen, propolis (plant resin) and water to bring back to their colony.
So, when you sit down to summer meals, you can thank a bee.
Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, says one-third of the American diet is pollinated by bees. Without bees, we'd be eating such wind-pollinated grains as wheat and rice.
Our gardens and orchards yield such favorites as carrots, cucumbers, onions, apples, grapefruit, oranges,...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
“My jar of honey went bad so I threw it away.”
How many times have you heard that?
It did not go “bad” but it did granulate, as honeys do. Granulation is the formation of sugar (glucose) crystals. Reheat the honey and it’s good to go — and eat.
“Most honeys granulate during storage after extended periods of time in containers,” says honey bee specialist/bee wrangler/six-decade beekeeper Norman Gary, emeritus professor in the Department of Entomology at UC Davis and author of the best-selling beginning beekeeping book, Honey Bee Hobbyist: The Care and Keeping of Bees.
“Sometimes honey granulates...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Honey, sometimes described as the soul of a field of flowers, seized the spotlight at a recent benefit in Sacramento for UC Davis honey bee research.
The occasion: The Bee Informed event.
The site: The historic ballroom of the Citizen Hotel, Sacramento.
“Honey is one of my favorite ingredients to use in desserts because of its beautifully nuanced flavors and gorgeous colors,” said Bee Informed coordinator Elaine Baker (top left) of the Citizen Hotel/Grange Restaurant. “It’s just magical.”
The event, open to the public, raised $600 for the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
When the grand opening celebration of the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at the University of California, Davis, takes place on Saturday, Sept. 11 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., this will also be a celebration of the honey bee.
The declining bee population, exacerbated by the mysterious disease called colony collapse disorder, makes us appreciate bees all the more. One-third of the food we eat is pollinated by bees.
Enter the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven.
Planted last fall next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road, the honey bee haven is a half-acre bee friendly garden designed to...
