The first 21 days of a bee’s life | Anand Varma | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

This content explores the challenges faced by bees and the efforts to save them through breeding programs and understanding their biology.

Key Insights

• 🐝 Bees are crucial for pollinating one-third of our food crops and are currently facing multiple threats, including pesticides, diseases, habitat loss, and a parasitic mite called Varroa destructor.
• 📸 The speaker, a photographer, decided to keep bees to better understand and document the problems bees are facing.
• 🍼 Bees are most vulnerable to stress and disease during their development inside brood cells, and researchers have studied this process by raising bees in front of a camera.
• 🐛 Bees go through a transformative process from egg to larva to pupa, during which mites can be seen crawling inside the cells.
• 💉 The traditional method of managing mites is by treating hives with chemicals, but researchers are working on finding alternative solutions.
• 🔬 An experimental breeding program at the USDA Bee Lab aims to develop mite-resistant bees through controlled breeding and collaboration with commercial beekeepers.
• 🏭 Managed bees have become essential for our food system due to the decline of native pollinators, emphasizing the importance of understanding and preserving our relationship with bees.
• 🔬 Studying the basic biology of bees and the effects of stressors is crucial in designing effective solutions and ensuring the survival of bees.

Transcript

(Music) These bees are in my backyard in Berkeley, California. Until last year, I'd never kept bees before, but National Geographic asked me to photograph a story about them, and I decided, to be able to take compelling images, I should start keeping bees myself. And as you may know, bees pollinate one third of our food crops, and lately they've be... Read More

Questions & Answers

Q: What are the main problems that bees are currently facing?

Bees are currently facing several different problems, including pesticides, diseases, and habitat loss. However, the single greatest threat to bees is a parasitic mite called Varroa destructor from Asia. This mite crawls onto young bees and sucks their blood, weakening their immune system and making them more vulnerable to stress and disease.

Q: How did the speaker document the development of bees inside their brood cells?

The speaker teamed up with a bee lab at U.C. Davis and figured out how to raise bees in front of a camera. They condensed the first 21 days of a bee's life into a 60-second video, showing the process from hatching as an egg to morphing into a pupa. Interestingly, mites were observed running around in the cells during the pupation process.

Q: How do beekeepers typically manage mites in their hives?

Beekeepers typically manage mites in their hives by treating them with chemicals. However, in the long run, relying solely on chemicals to control mites is not sustainable or desirable. Therefore, researchers are working on finding alternatives to these chemical treatments.

Q: What is one alternative method being developed to control mites in beehives?

One alternative method being developed is an experimental breeding program at the USDA Bee Lab, where researchers are breeding mite-resistant bees. They discovered that some bees naturally have the ability to fight mites and are breeding a line of bees that possess this resistance. However, there is a tradeoff, as some of these mite-resistant bees may lose other desirable traits, such as gentleness and ability to store honey.

Q: How are commercial beekeepers collaborating with researchers in developing mite-resistant bees?

Commercial beekeepers, like Bret Adee who runs the largest beekeeping operation in the world, are collaborating with researchers to integrate mite-resistant bees into their operations. The hope is to select bees that are not only mite-resistant but also retain all the qualities that make them useful to us, such as gentleness and ability to store honey. This collaboration aims to develop mite-resistant bees that can contribute effectively to our food system.

Q: What is the speaker's interpretation of "saving bees"?

The speaker believes that "saving bees" means saving our relationship with bees. Bees have been domesticated for thousands of years, primarily to harvest their honey. However, with the decline of wild pollinators, managed bees have become an essential part of our food system. To find solutions and address the challenges bees face, it is crucial to understand the basic biology of bees and the hidden stressors they encounter.

Summary & Key Takeaways

1. Bees are facing numerous threats including pesticides, diseases, and habitat loss, but the most significant threat is the Varroa destructor mite, which weakens a hive's immune system and makes them more vulnerable to stress and disease.

2. Researchers are working on finding alternatives to treating the mites with chemicals and are breeding mite-resistant bees through an experimental program at the USDA Bee Lab.

3. Managed bees have become essential to our food system, and in order to save our relationship with bees, we need to understand their biology and the impact of stressors on them to develop new solutions.