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Fun Facts
Did You Know?
Honeybees do not buzz-pollinate. They cannot vibrate their thoracic muscles at the frequencies needed to shake pollen loose from flowers that hold it under tension. Tomatoes, blueberries, eggplant, peppers: all crops that produce best with sonication. Honeybees visit those flowers and collect whatever surface pollen is available, which is not nothing but is also not the job the flower evolved for
If This Animal Could Talk...
"Watch closely, respect my space, and let my habitat explain the rest of the story."
The western honeybee, Apis mellifera arrived in North America with European colonists in the 1600s. The most famous pollinator in the world is an import. The species was present long enough that most people assume it is native. The bumble bees on your goldenrod in September were in North Louisiana for tens of thousands of years. The honeybee arrived approximately when the French did, which says something about both of them.
This does not make the honeybee unwelcome or unimportant. Managed honeybee colonies are genuinely valuable to commercial agriculture and the beekeeping community across North Louisiana's 26 parishes is active and committed. It does mean that calling the honeybee the foundation of all pollination is the kind of historical revisionism that needs ignoring several million years of native bee evolution, which is a lot to ignore.
A Few More Facts
How they hunt and forage: The bees on your goldenrod in fall include both native species and feral honeybees, and they are all there for the same reason: fat reserves, nectar stores, the coming cold. The managed honeybee population survives through intensive beekeeping: mite treatments, medication, supplemental feeding, queen replacement. The managed honeybee population survives through intensive beekeeping: mite treatments, medication, supplemental feeding, queen replacement.
Live birth or eggs? no
When young are born: A honeybee colony that survives winter emerges in spring as a functioning unit with stored food, workers, and a laying queen ready to expand.
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Accessibility
Accessibility
Honeybee foraging activity carries in flower patches at close range. The collective buzzing of multiple workers on clover or native wildflowers carries several feet. The flight buzz is lighter and higher-pitched than a bumble bee's, a slightly faster, less resonant tone. Honeybees do not buzz-pollinate, so the sharp sonication tone present at bumble bee and carpenter bee foraging sites is absent from honeybee-only sites. The absence of that sharper tone is on its own information about who is doing the work.
Feral colony nest entrances, at a hollow tree cavity or wall void opening, produce a steady low-frequency hum from returning and departing foragers throughout the active day. A colony entrance locates by ear from several feet in still conditions.
Managed apiaries, where beekeepers are usually happy to have observers, provide the most organized access. The collective flight activity of a managed hive carries outside the apiary fence. Clover and native wildflower patches along rural roadsides produce reliable honeybee foraging activity accessible from a parked vehicle or road shoulder throughout the spring, summer, and fall foraging season.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does Western Honeybee live in North Louisiana?
Yes. The bumble bees on your goldenrod in September were in North Louisiana for tens of thousands of years. Managed honeybee colonies are genuinely valuable to commercial agriculture and the beekeeping community across North Louisiana's 26 parishes is active and committed. Honeybees are extremely effective for agricultural crops in bloom: clover, cotton, citrus, melons, many vegetable crops across North Louisiana
How do you identify Western Honeybee?
Workers measure about half an inch long, slender-waisted, covered in pale-banded fuzz. Brown-yellow with alternating pale and dark abdominal bands. Wings translucent and slightly amber-tinted. The body fuzz is sparser than a bumble bee's and the clearly segmented abdomen reads as wasp-like to people who are not looking closely
What does Western Honeybee eat?
The bees on your goldenrod in fall include both native species and feral honeybees, and they are all there for the same reason: fat reserves, nectar stores, the coming cold. The managed honeybee population survives through intensive beekeeping: mite treatments, medication, supplemental feeding, queen replacement. The managed honeybee population survives through intensive beekeeping: mite treatments, medication, supplemental feeding, queen replacement.
Is Western Honeybee dangerous to people?
The managed honeybee is the bee most North Louisiana residents have had the most intentional contact with, through honey, commercially pollinated agricultural products, and the beekeeping community maintaining managed apiaries across the 26 parishes
