Did you know bees can be taught to count or even play soccer?
Victoria University professor of Ecology and Entomology, Phil Lester, has just written a book about the incredible honey bee - Healthy Bee, Sick Bee: The Influence of Parasites, Pathogens, Predators and Pesticides on Honey Bees
Phil joins Jesse to explain why we probably have "too many" bees in New Zealand.
Victoria University professor of Ecology and Entomology, Phil Lester, has two beehives at the office. Photo: Victoria University of Wellington
Listen
They are an “amazing little creature” Prof Lester tells Jesse Mulligan.
“They can do all sorts of different things, so you can get bees counting, you can get bees playing soccer, you can get bees treating themselves for different diseases that they may encounter.
“They’re an amazing little creature and they’re an important little creature for our environment and agricultural and horticultural industries.”
The biggest challenge the bee keeping industry faces is over-stocking in some areas, he says.
“There’s quite a lot of competition for manuka honey, there’s quite a lot of overstocking and that creates problems associated with lack of food and transmission of diseases.”
Although compared with North America, New Zealand is in pretty good shape, he says.
“North America has up to 50 percent colony loss over winter, whereas we have much less colony loss here, so maybe 10 percent of hives will be lost over the winter period.”
And New Zealand has never seen the true colony collapse disorder that has happened in North America, he says.
Perhaps the biggest threat to New Zealand’s honey bees is varroa which established in about 2000.
“If you don’t treat for this little parasite you’ll lose your hives in 6 months to a year.”
Wasps too are a threat, he says.
“People will lose a whole lot of hives to wasps every year. I’ve heard of people losing 30 percent of their hives to wasps some years when it’s nice and warm and hot and good wasp breeding conditions
“In Autumn you will get a lot of wasps attacking your hives and they will kill off entire hives.”
There isn’t a lot of data on the threat pesticides pose in New Zealand, he says.
“In New Zealand we don’t have a lot of evidence that pesticides are a major contributor to bee population collapse
But if you talk to most bee keepers they will tell you things like varroa mite and nutrition and wasps are the main problems that our bee keepers face.”
If we want to help bees then plant food that offers them pollen and nectar, Prof Lester says.
And for aspiring beekeepers he recommends getting in touch with your local club.
“It’s a fantastic little hobby. They are amazing little intelligent creatures.
“Bees do require a good skill set to manage and maintain wellbeing and bee keeping clubs all over New Zealand will help you learn those skills.”