April showers bring May flowers and along with them come the bees.
Ellen and Mike Garvey have their own beehives in Swampscott, along with an estimated nine other beekeepers in the area. The couple, who are members of the Essex County Beekeepers Association, discussed the insects, their importance to the community, and how to bee-keep during a presentation at the Senior Center on Thursday. They have also spoken in the past at the Swampscott Public Library.
Mike grew up in North Carolina watching his father keep bees, so he caught the – errr – “bug.” He also kept bees for a time in college, “completely unknown to the college.”
“I had a pretty intense job so I put that off for 30 years until I retired,” Mike said. “Keeping bees today is a lot harder than it looks.”
Ellen explained that much of the difficulty comes from a mite “that hops species.” The mite originated in Asia, where bees have adapted to the pest, unlike bees in the United States.
“It’s quite sizable,” Ellen said. “The mites carry viruses and those viruses cause their wings to not develop. If you get that virus badly in your hive, you’ll lose the hive. That’s the biggest thing. It’s not a question of if you’ll get mites. It’s a question of when and how bad.”
Bees, however, are crucial for human survival and the overall health of the ecosystem. They are the world’s primary pollinators, supporting roughly 35% of global food crops and about 75% of flowering plants. They also provide high-quality food in honey and royal jelly as well as other products like beeswax and propolis, which Ellen explained as a sticky sap that is a mix of wax and bee saliva and can act as an antimicrobial and pathogen-fighting barrier for the insects.
The Environment Massachusetts Research and Policy Center released results last month from a pollinator protection survey, which suggested that the majority of Massachusetts cities and towns have taken action to protect at-risk pollinator populations.
“They are very important,” Ellen said at the beginning of her presentation.
Ellen shared the difference between a few native bees, like the carpenter, which is shiny and carves a nest in wood; the bumblebee, which is furry; and the sweat bee, which looks more metallic-y like its scientific name suggests.
“Sometimes bees get a bad rap for building nests that are nasty, and those are actually wasps,” Ellen said. “Wasps are carnivores. They’re the ones that show up at your picnic, not honeybees. They’re just interested in flowers.”
Ellen showed photos of the hives in the Garveys’ backyard, including the boxes from the inside, where the different bees live and how they extract different products. She also described the dances bees use to “talk” to one another, a behavior researchers only discovered about 50 years ago.
The couple suggested that anyone interested in becoming a beekeeper should first find a mentor and potentially join the nine-week course taught through the Essex County Beekeepers Association.
