Tri-Beta Club
Hello everyone! Tri-Beta is here again to share with you another tale of science. The honeybee is probably one of the most misunderstood creatures out there. Many people fear the honeybee and think of it as just another annoyance, when in fact the honey bee plays a critical role with agriculture.
The honeybee is a pollinator, a biotic agent that moves pollen from the male part of the flower to the female part of a flower to accomplish fertilization. Without the honey bee or other pollinators, the flower cannot reproduce. This is important with agriculture because fruits like apples and nuts like almonds depend on bees for fertilization to produce the fruit or nut that we enjoy to eat. In fact, 1.5 million colonies of bees are used to pollinate the almond groves in California. The way this is done is a beekeeper raises honeybees, leaves them in fields near farms on the back of a truck for two weeks, and the honeybees will naturally fly around pollinate the food growing on the farm.
The issue with honeybees today is that many of the honeybees are dying for no known reason. When a lot of the honeybees die, the colony is subject to collapse and no longer be able to house the thousands of honeybees that live within. It has been thought that poisons used on crops to kill unwanted insects have also been killing honeybees, or mites have been feeding on the honeybees, killing them. It is still unclear what the ultimate cause is and if no solution is found soon we may run out of honeybees to pollinate and thus reducing the amount of produce available.
If you liked this article or have any topics you would like covered please feel free to contact us at asctribeta@gmail.com. We meet every Monday at five in the stem center and we would love to see you there!
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