Week 3: Mason bees, honey bees, and flavor analysis

3a. Natural history/regen ag research

General natural history of bees (notes from The Bee reading)

Bees evolved from wasps. Some are solitary, others are social. There are over 20,000 recorded species of bee. The Bee: A Natural History by Noah Wilson-Rich breaks bees into 4 categories:

• Solitary
• Bumble
• Stingless
• Honey

There are 3 types of bees in relation to the flowers they pollinate (organized in the book by family)

• Short tongued:
  • Andrenidae
  • Colletidae
  • Stenotritidae
• Medium length tongue:
  • Dasyponaidae
  • Meganomidae
  • Melittidae
  • Halictidae
• Long-tongued:
  • Apidae
    • Bumble and honeybees
  • Megachilidae
    • Mason bees

How do bees fly?

High speed photography in the 2000s showed they create vortexes with their wings

Bee senses:

• Eyes: see ultraviolet, but no red (world is blue and purple)
• Feel: vibrate to communicate
• Taste: they have ten taste receptors
• Smell: 
  • Used to detect predators and flowers
  • Smells can be handed antennae-to-antennae
  • 163 odor receptors 
  • Antennae are responsible
• Sound: not significant to a bee

Native bee spotlight: mason bees (Osmia spp.)

Most Osmia species that live in North America (about 40% of the Osmia genus worldwide) (Ormes 2015) are native to North America (Beaudette 2013). They are adapted to cool weather and light rain. They are blue, shiny, and stout. They don’t make honey, and they don’t sting unless provoked. (McClure 2016) They’re incredibly efficient workers. (Burlew 2019) The genus Osmia includes 342 known species (Ormes 2015).

Distribution:

Mason bees live all over the world, but of those in North America, most live on the West Coast (Ormes 2015).

Why are they important?

Solitary bees don’t busy themselves with making honey, so they need less nectar and pollinate far more flowers than honey bees. They also work at cooler hours of the day, and in cold, wet climates where honey bees aren’t well suited (Ormes 2015). 250 mason bees can pollinate 1 acre of apple (McClure 2016). They are great allies in food production and plant biodiversity.

What do they pollinate?

Generally, mason bees need forage that flowers between February and May (Beaudette 2013). Some species of mason bees are specialists while others will pollinate many different floral species (Ormes 2015). Most species have medium length tongues. They also dislodge a lot of pollen when they visit due to the motion. They collect pollen on their abdomen. (11, add citation!)

Their known forage as a genus includes (Ormes 2015):

• Asteraceae (aster family)
• Berberidaceae (barberry family)
• Ebenaceae (ebony family)
• Ericaceae (heather family)
• Fabaceae (pea family)
• Fagaceae (oak family)
• Grossulariaceae (currant family)
• Rhamnaceae (buckthorn family)
• Rosaceae (rose family)
• Scrophulariaceae (figwort family)

Included in these families are some treasured understory food and medicine plants native to the PNW; huckleberry, salmonberry, strawberry, native roses, peas and clovers, mullein, foxglove, dandelion, chicory, yarrow, coltsfoot, arnica, burdock, thistle, salal, and more (5).

Some other species:

Osmia ribifloris is a busy pollinator of blueberries and cranberries (Burlew 2019).

O. lanei is an example of a very particular eater, who prefers to only collect pollen and nectar from flowers in the pea family. (Ormes 2015)

What are their nesting habits?

The mason bee is a solitary bee, meaning they don’t organize in hives. Osmia spp. nest in cavities at least 6″ deep covered on one end, usually in wood, woody stems, soil, or rock. The male bees are laid in the front and the female bee(s) in the back, each in their own cell, along with some food, and sealed with mud (Beaudette 2013, Ormes 2015). Mason bees require a source of mud and pre-made holes to make their nests (McClure 2016, Ormes 2015).

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Life cycle

In the spring, when temperatures reach 55 F, bees emerge from their holes. Females will mate with males, work for about 4 weeks, lay their eggs with some pollen and nectar, and then die. Baby bees grow to maturity by September, and hibernate until spring. This means mason bees are dormant for most of the year (Beaudette 2013, Ormes 2015).

Threats to native mason bees

According to NatureServe, at least 17% of the 139 Osmia species native to North America are endangered. Threats include habitat loss and degradation, pesticide use, and disease; the same factors threatening all bees.

How to attract native Mason bees to your garden or farm

Mason bee nesting boxes can be constructed using stacked tubes of some kind, at least 6″ long because females are laid in the back. This should be mounted in the way of morning sunshine and within a short distance from mud and spring flowers. Be sure to change it out or clean it well every two years (Beaudette 2013). Read more here.

The Organic Farm and community garden have 3 mason bee nesting boxes. The one in the community garden should be moved to a shadier spot for cooler afternoons.

3b. Habitat assessment/improvements

On Tuesday, I spent the morning weeding with Alegra and Le’Allen in the herb garden to prepare for planting hyssop and reviving the calendula garden.

On Thursday I toured the farm to take notes and then spent an hour or so weeding a space in the community garden for planting pollinator meadow flowers.

For the habitat assessment, the guide prompted me to look for a checklist of landscape features (pictured below) and also calculate what percent of the farm is in natural or semi-natural habitat.

Methodology: I took notes on an aerial map from google maps during the tour. Then I highlighted natural and semi-natural habitat within the borders of the farm. I placed a grid over the labeled map, counted how many squares the farm fit, and then counted how many squares were filled with natural landscape. I then divided value A by value B, multiplied the result (C) by 100, resulting in a percent value.

3c. Film and media analysis

This week I’m sharing minutes 36:00-38:20 of the film Queen of the Sun to address how learning about honey bees can be relevant to learning about native pollinators.

The way the message is communicated starts with beekeeper Gunter Friedman using the metaphor of a canary in a coal mine in reference to the decline of the honey bee. Then Scott Black, biologist from Xerces society, orates as the filmmakers cut in footage of bees feeding on beautiful flowers. I think the way they started with a wide shot of a field and then inserted close ups of native bees conveys the message that there is much more to a landscape than meets the eye. Black says, “what most people think of when they think of a pollinator is they think of the honey bee, and the honey bee is by far the most important agricultural pollinator we have, but what a lot of people don’t realize is… we have about 4,000 species of other bees… and beyond bees, flies and beetles are very very important pollinators.” At minutes 37:45, Scott Black explains that “we’ve seen a decline in many of our bees. With our native bees, we’re seeing declines from probably the same things; disease to nutrition to potentially pesticides, as well as habitat loss.”

This clip does a good job of connecting honey bees to their relatives. The decline of honey bees is an indication that there are threats to native bees and other insect pollinators too. These workers are crucial to human life. By studying honey bees, we can gain insight into how to conserve other insect populations. And by planting forage or preserving habitat for honey bees, we support native pollinators too.

At another point during this film, I got very curious about feminism in beekeeping, because I noticed the male beekeepers using patriarchal language like “virgin”, “marriage” referring to mating, and “good girls” when talking about worker bees. I will be exploring this more week 4.

3d. Tasting research

Notes from The Honey Connoisseur chapter 5, “Tasting Honey”

The authors’ take on honey sensory analysis is similar to the standard protocol for wine and food. They consider the goals of sensory analysis to be:

• What flavors and aromas are present
• Their intensity
• The order of their appearance
• Any “off” flavors, or a baseline for what normal tastes like

They advise that the taster:

• Don’t eat beforehand
• No perfume
• Drink water/ rest between samples
• Don’t use containers with flashy packaging

Appearance

According to the book, raw and unfiltered honey is usually cloudy.

Texture

Texture and viscosity are actually two different things: viscosity is the body or weight, while texture is the tactile mouthfeel (affected by temperature).

Some honeys will crystalize, while other types never do. This happens when particles (dust, pollen, air bubbles, etc) act as nuclei for the formation of crystals. It can be natural or induced. Honey with >30% glucose will crystalize quickly. Between 60F and 75F, crystals grow quickly and consistent. Above 75F or below 60F will result in uneven chunks. Small crystals are typically considered pleasantly smooth and spreadable, while chunky crystals are undesirable.

Thixotropic honey, like the popular Manuka honey, is gel like at rest but liquid when shaken.

Aroma

Cupping the top for a minute will heat up the aroma volatiles.

The authors claim that the three biggest factors in a honey’s flavor are nectar sources, local terroir, and the beekeeper.

Flavor

Most honey will present tart or sour flavors. Some honey is sweeter than others. More glucose and less fructose will make very sweet honey, sometimes overwhelmingly so. Coastal honeys can be salty. Rarely does umami present in honey.

Other things present in a hive that may be in your honey include beeswax, pollen, and propolis. Beeswax tastes warm and sweet. Pollen tastes sweet, nutty, earthy, floral, and may sting. Pollen is antibacterial. Propolis may taste like sap, resin, turpentine, or wax.

Bad honey

Separation could indicate spoilage. Fermentation only occurs in honey with a moisture content >17-18%. It might smell like bread, wine, or mead, and feel tingly. High moisture is a result of harvesting honey from the comb too early in it’s curing. Some honeys may be overly smokey due to the smoke used in beekeeping, but some just naturally have smokey flavors.

Non-native guest of honor: the honey bee (Apis spp.)

Notes from The Bee: a Natural History unless otherwise cited

Honey bees live in colonies that nest in combs constructed by worker bees. They secrete wax to build these hives. The combs store food (honey!) for brood and for winter survival. Apis spp. belong to the subfamily Apinae, along with bumble bees, long horned bees, orchid bees, digger bees, and more. While these other genus have nests between 1-100’s of bees, Apis spp. have 10’s to 1000’s of bees in a hive. The colony includes worker bees who forage and do other labor, drones who mate with the queen, and the queen who lays eggs.

Honey bees produce:

Honey is cured nectar, sealed with wax in the comb until harvested by bees, humans, or animals. If harvested too early, the honey may have a high water content and be vulnerable to fermentation (Marchese 2013).

Within the genus Apis (honey bees) is multiple commercially exploited species: 

• From Africa: 
  • mellifera 
• From Asia:
  • cerana 
  • koschevnikovi 
  • migrocincta 

Life cycle of a worker honey bee (female)

1. In a brood cell, egg hatches
2. Larvae feeds on royal jelly
3. Feeds on bee bread
4. Grows to pupa stage by 1 week old
5. Stays sealed in for an additional 2 weeks
6. Mature bee emerges at 3 weeks old
7. Performs reproductive labor 
8. Guards the hive
9. Levels up to forager
10. Dies: summer born worker honey bees live ~1 month, winter born female honey bees live ~3-6 months, queen bees live years, and drones live ~3 months.

Diet

• Nectar for carbohydrates
• Pollen for protein

 Nectar is stored in the crop pouch. Honey bees carry 20-40 mg at a time.

Honey history

Artwork depicting honey gathering dates back to 13,000 yrs ago. Terroir fact alert: Egyptians are the oldest known beekeepers, even using hives on rafts to diversify the diet of bees and therefore the flavor. Apis mellifera Lamarckii evolved in Egypt.

Mesoamericans also kept (stingless) honey bees for 1000’s of years pre-columbus.

The Queen bee

A queen bee is made by feeding more royal jelly to a larva. Sometimes multiple queens emerge and have to fight to the death.

• Gets a special room and special royal jelly during brood stage
• She is the only bee in the colony who can lay eggs

The purpose of the stinger in honey bees:

• Queen: kill other queens (won’t die after use)
• Worker: hormonal signal and colony defense (will die when she stings)
• Drone: fertilizes queen (and then the drone dies)

Genetics

• Females are diploid
• Males are haploid
• Workers occasionally can lay eggs, in the absence of a queen, that are haploid drones

3e. Sensory analysis

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This week I tasted a variety of honey samples to find out the range of flavors and textures possible in honey. I used methodology and tools from The Honey Connoisseur by Marina Marchese and Kim Flottum. The raw honey samples I tasted are from Jacobsen Salt Co. Overall, I was amazed by the range of flavors and textures and my mind was spinning with all the ways I could use these different honeys.

3f. Special events

3g. Cooking and/or writing

I had fun this week experimenting with which varietals of honey to add to what foods. I put alfalfa honey on my toast, used buckwheat honey in place of molasses in my seitan, added wildflower and blackberry honey to my yoghurt in place of fruit that’s not in season yet, and used clover honey to sweeten and brighten my coffee cake, with a carrot flower honey wash. The various flavors all ignited lost memories. The alfalfa honey reminded me distinctly of honey nut cheery-o’s. The carrot flower honey, especially it’s texture (thick with consistent tiny crystals, but melty, like coconut oil) reminded me of the raw honey my stepmom would buy for us when I was little. We had the kind of kitchen stocked with lots of raw “healthy” ingredients but no snacks, so one of my favorite things to make was a tortilla or toast with cinnamon and raw honey. A little bit of honey goes a long way, so it was a sneaky treat when I was young.

Ingredients:

• Cinnamon
• Big leaf maple flowers, removed from stem
• Dried, crushed orange peel
• Vanilla
• Chia seeds
• 1/2 cup honey
• 3 1/4 cup flour of choice
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp butter or oil
• 1 cup milk of choice
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Bake at 375 F for 45 minutes!

3h. References

1. Burlew, R. (2019, June 20). What do mason bees pollinate? Do mason bees and honey bees compete? Backyard Beekeeping. https://backyardbeekeeping.iamcountryside.com/plants-pollination/what-do-mason-bees-pollinate/

2. Beaudette, J. (2013, March 15). Attract mason bees- no protective gear needed. Ecological Landscape Alliance. https://www.ecolandscaping.org/03/landscaping-for-wildlife/beneficialspollinators/attract-mason-bees-no-protective-gear-needed/

3. McClure, N. (2016, May 20). An ode to six native bees. Forterra. https://forterra.org/editorial/ode-six-native-bees#annotations:wjKDHpf9Eeu6SPsp04SFrA

4: Ormes, M. Schweitzer, D. Sears, N. Young, B. (2015, September). Conservation and management of north american mason bees. NatureServe. https://www.natureserve.org/sites/default/files/web_-_natureserve_osmia_report_brochure.pdf

5: MacKinnon, A., Pojar, J., & Alaback, P. B. (1994). Plants of the Pacific Northwest coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska. Richmond, Wash: Lone Pine Publishing.

7: Wilson-Rich, N. (2014). The bee: a natural history. Sussex, UK: Princeton University Press

8: Marchese, M. Flottum, K. (2013). The honey connoisseur: selecting, tasting, and pairing honey, with a guide to more than 30 varietals. New York, NY: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishing.

9: Siegel, T. (Director). (2010). Queen of the sun: what are the bees telling us? [Film]. Collective Eye, Inc.

10: Robertson, L. (1986). The New Laurel’s Kitchen. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press

11: https://ncipmhort.cfans.umn.edu/id-native-bees-0#:~:text=Size%3A%20Medium%2C%204.5%20%2D%208,(0.08%20%2D0.1%20in.)