As tiny as they are, bees hold entire plant kingdoms together. Experts agree, EN365 spoke to Professor Christian Pirk, from the Department of Zoology and Entomology from the University of Pretoria and Stuart McDougall, founder and manager of the Johannesburg Bee Sanctuary.
What you need to know about bees
Editor (Nandi Mgwadlamba): “Why are bees so important”?
Prof Pirk: “In Africa, honeybees and other bees in general, are essential for their ecosystem services. This includes pollinating crops like blueberries, apples, pears, kiwis, canola and in ensuring that the plant diversity we have in this country, is maintained and thriving.
The Cape floristic region, a floral kingdom, would not exist as such, without bee and honeybee pollination. Flowering gardens would not exist without honeybees.”
Editor: “South Africa has two kinds of honeybees (the African honeybee and the Cape honeybee). Which one is most threatened?”
Prof Pirk: “Difficult to say since we do not know what we have in the wild.
A study from 2010 estimated that we have 12 million colonies in South Africa and only 5% are in beekeepers’ hands.
The major threats include pesticide use, land transformation, monocultures, climate change, pathogens and bad beekeepers and bee human conflict.
All of these interact, which makes it a dangerous cocktail.
Pesticides, or better agrochemicals, since herbicides and fungicides affect them as well, are a big killer, either in the agricultural setup in which bees are needed for pollination but agrochemicals are used as well. Pest removal companies do not provide information on how many colonies they kill every year, but we guess it is a rather significant number. Also the use of pesticides and herbicides to kill weeds in private gardens.”
Editor: “What are the most damaging threats to bees?”
Prof Pirk: “Land transformation, because it takes away nesting and foraging sites of colonies in the wild and bees need a balanced diet, which means a field of a flowering crop might look beautiful but from a nutritional point, it is a desert for bees.
Climate change, because it will change the flowering pattern and will result in dry and hotter conditions both of which have a negative impact on bees, since they regulate the conditions in their hive, so they have to bring in more water to cool the hive down, but they also might have to fly further to find water, which costs more energy, but since energy comes from nectar, and plants tend to produce less nectar under drier conditions less food might be available.
Pathogens seem to thrive more when bees are stressed, either because of food shortage, or unbalanced food in the surrounding, or pesticide exposure or stress from heat and dry conditions etc.”
Editor: ” How do we address the challenges?”
Prof Pirk: ” Let’s begin by providing forage through the year, allow weeds to grow in an agricultural setup to provide alternative and complementary food source for bees pollinating the crops. Less pesticide use in general, be it at work or in the agricultural sector.
If one comes across a wild colony rather leave them alone and although in densely populated areas it can be a risk leaving bees there, rather move them, than kill them.”
Picture of Professor Christian Pirk, University of Pretoria.
Stuart McDougall from the Johannesburg Bee Sanctuary debunks myths about bees in Joburg.
Editor: ” What does your work entail?”
Stuart :” As a sanctuary, we are on a mission to safely relocate honeybees from locations that are undesirable or dangerous to humans, to locations where they can thrive and be productive.
We constantly look at how we can create a symbiotic relationship between the beekeeper and the most natural way our bees would live in the wild. This is a give-and-take for both the bees and the beekeeper.”
Editor: ” Are you finding there are lesser and lesser bees in Jhb and Gauteng?”
Stuart: “I am not finding there to be fewer bees in Johannesburg and Gauteng, instead we are seeing a growth in the number of our bee colonies and the number of beekeepers. I attribute this to the extensive availability of foraging in our urban areas that provide for our bees through most seasons.
One must remember that the Highveld is naturally a temperate grassland biome that is not abundant in pollen and nectar, which would naturally make it not suitable for large quantities of bee colonies, but the man-made forest of Johannesburg, changes this dynamic and is therefore an environment where bees can thrive.”
Editor:” What threats are facing bees in urban Gauteng?”
Stuart: ” There are a few threats to our bees in Gauteng. While bees are being kept in urban areas it will be one or two hives here and there.
A challenge faced by beekeepers, is that of finding suitable land to keep hives, to be close to sustainable pollen and nectar resources.
Suitable land also extends to the safety of our bee hives from theft and vandalism, which is probably our number one threat at the moment.
There are other threats that have been around for sometime, like pesticide exposure and climate change.
Another threat is bee extermination by homeowners who are not willing to pay to have bees safely relocated.
The homeowner should ideally make sure the bee removal is done by a responsible beekeeper and not someone who will likely destroy the hive to just make money from the removal.”
Editor: ” How can everyone get involved?”
Stuart: ” Local residents can familiarise themselves with plants that flower at various times of the year in order to continue providing bees with pollen and nectar through all seasons. They can have a beekeeper place catch boxes in regular places where bees infest so they can be removed safely.
They can ensure that when they have a bee problem they will be willing to pay a beekeeper to safely remove the bees, they should do the necessary investigation to make sure they are using a responsible beekeeper.”
Contact details : +27836510195, https://www.beesanctuary.injohannesburg.co.za/.
Women in bee farming
Mmabatho Morudi – Iliju Bee Farm
Follow via Local village.africa
Thato Moagi’s LeGae La Banareng Farms
+27683084271.
Picture: Department of Agriculture
Pictures of bees: iNaturalist and Bee aware