Bees? Who Wants Bees?

So why would you want to attract bees to your yard in the first place?

They sting, right? Well, yes, but only if seriously provoked. Truth is, honeybees are very, very seldom a nuisance. Rather, it’s their second or third cousins, figuratively speaking (wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets), that are responsible for ruining most picnics and barbecues, and for most summertime stings. Part of the reason for this is that honeybees “have but one sting to give,” to paraphrase Patrick Henry. If a honeybee does sting, it costs her her life, so as a species, they’re evolutionarily programmed to sting only in defense of the hive. Wasps and their kin, on the other hand, can sting repeatedly, without sacrificing their lives, and, to make matters worse, they’re just constitutionally more cantankerous. So remember, it’s almost never the gentle honeybee that’s a problem.

Still, to anyone but a beekeeper (and possibly an ecologist), it may not be evident why attracting bees is a good thing. There are, however, a number of good reasons. First of all, consider a yard without bees. If you don’t have any honeybees, it’s likely that pesticide use has something to do with it. And if you don’t have honeybees, chances are that you don’t have that many butterflies, other bugs, or birds either (many of the latter eat insects, after all). Several years ago, I worked for a retail seed company specializing in heirloom and gourmet vegetable seed. Despite that seemingly “green” business niche, most of the wholesale suppliers from whom we bought bulk seed ran their trials in a distinctly nonorganic manner. Many of their fields were wastelands, with nary a bird or bug to be found for miles. Those were surreal environments. So, if you want your yard to be a vibrant, living ecosystem (and if you’d like safe, clean drinking water) steer clear of synthetic pesticides.

Another good reason to welcome bees to your yard is that one out of every three food crops grown in the United States must be pollinated by honeybees. So if you want more tomatoes (or apples, or melons, or…), grow some mint (see the article LOCATION). The connection may seem less than obvious, or intuitive, but if bees come to associate your yard with pollen and nectar, they’ll be scouting it year round, so when your fruit or vegetable crops start to flower, the bees will be there to help pollinate. And even if you don’t have a vegetable garden or fruit trees of your own, you’ll be helping to ensure the survival of honeybees who will be pollinating crops elsewhere in the area. (Honeybees will range at least two to three miles from their hive, and farther if necessary.)

And, though it strikes the beekeeper as self-evident, the best reason to plant herbs and flowers that are attractive to bees is to provide forage for a hive of your own. Keeping a hive or two of bees is a tremendous way to tune in to the rhythm of the seasons, to get you outside breathing fresh air, to stimulate both body and mind… Or as the eminent beekeeper Richard Taylor so eloquently put it in his How-To-Do-It Book of Beekeeping, “…for someone possessed of the right temperament, one whose spirit is attuned to nature, apiculture offers a way of life that is unique and totally fulfilling. It challenges both body and mind, rewarding the earthen element in us with the loveliest and most delectable of foods and rewarding the spirit with the sense of competence, skill, of challenge met and purpose achieved.” Well said.

¾Vincent Laurence

(To learn more about beekeeping, get in touch with a local beekeeping club such as the Backyard Beekeepers Association www.backyardbeekeepers.com.)