On a bright and sunny day, September 16, the Garden Club started the new club year with a bright and bee-ze meeting.
Those that attended were treated to a fascinating presentation by MacKenzie Hintz on the history and culture of honeybees.
Here are some interesting facts: Honeybees are not native to America. They have been brought here from around the world, as early as the 1600s to the east coast. They migrated across the states, arriving on the west coast by the 1800s. Native bees were already here but they are not as efficient in collecting pollen for honey making because they are more solitary, whereas honeybees live in hives with a queen bee and worker bees.
Each hive has one large queen bee who runs the hive, mates with the lazy male bees (the female bees do all the work), lays all the eggs (around 2000 a day), and lives from three to five years—while the worker bees last only weeks. Besides producing honey (their main food source), the
hive produces beeswax and other secretions that are used in cosmetics.
The bee population is threatened by the expansion of agricultural farmland, thus reducing native plants for the bee’s food source, and by the use of chemical pesticides.
Our speaker ended her presentation by asking us gardeners to help the bees by planting flowering plants, leaving a tray of fresh water out, and to stop using pesticides.
Our next meeting is on Monday, October 21. Our speaker will be Rex from the Dana Point Nursery whose topic is “October is for Planting.” Our members-only Lobster Fest is Thursday, October 24. An email will be sent to all members with the cost and other information about the dinner.
—Karl Kuhn
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