Saturday 22 February 2020

Bees and Myclium

Hello readers,

Today I'll tell you a bit about a conference I attended based on the works of Paul Stamets.
It's all about how bees visit mycelium and why.

But first:

Weather Report:

I have to say winter never really came by, but who knows it might still do so.  And if it does let's hope the surviving bees make it.  It's been over two weeks now that I see the bees fly out on a daily basis, the spring bloom is two to three weeks early and it's heartwarming to see the bees on some flowers in my garden.

Hive Report:

You might wonder why I find it heartwarming to see bees on the flowers, well that's because I don't have a lot of good news to share.

Of  all the hives I sent into winter (13, and I had 20 - nucs included- at a certain point) only 3 survived...
Only in my first two bee-yards the bees have known survivors:
At home I have my LL2018 and the ZK2019 (might have called it IC2019 elsewhere) and in my second yard the LL2019 is still alive.

So I know what to do this year, pretty much the same as in 2018, but better!

The Mycelium theorie:

This will of course not be the entire presentation, but rather what I picked up from it.  Paul Stamets started all this, although there might have been others with similar observations who's voice was not heard.  In any case what is to be observed is that bees actively look for mycelium in the soil.  To understand why they look for excretion from that mycelium we need to understand something else first.
The immunity of a bee and how it digests pollen.

Immunity & pesticides

Bees have several ways to defend themselves against diseases and toxins they encounter, part of it is outside of the bees with the propolis, another part is within each bee and in fact each other living being: it's intestinal biome.  There's more distinctive aspects to the immunity than just these two, but as I understand it these are the most important off all.  Now when bees go out and forage they bring back all sorts of harmful life along with what we spray on our plants and in the soil.
Among those pesticides are fungicides and in combination with whatever other toxic substance this fungicide enhances the toxicity.  So how little harm that one product is supposed to do (since it got approved, right?) the harm is substantial in combination with fungicides.  Even in such a way that the immunity system shuts down or is limited in it's defensive capabilities.  Alongside that the production of other vital substances is hindered, resulting in less production of the ATP (a substance that is helping with nourishment of the muscles in living beings) turning the insects from flying bees into crawling bees with intact wings.

Digestion of pollen

Bees can't digest pollen as it is protected by an outer layer of a very hard substance (sporopollenin) that they can't break down with their own digestive system.  They need that outer layer to become soft and partly broken down by other processes (acids).  That needed acid is also broken down by a component in a lot of pesticides, resulting in bad nutrition for the bees, who were already struggling with their immune-system.  And we all know that you have to eat right to be healthy, now don't we?

Conclusion:

Basically the bees have a hard time due to what we are doing to our planet with spraying to 'protect' our plants that have to grow on fertiliser since our soil is barren.  We are the cause of the shut down their immune system has, we affect their neuro synaptic functions and we hinder their consumption of egg whites.  This on top of all other pressures the bees have to deal with (predators, climate change, intrusions by the beekeeper, ...)

Solution:

Well yes, you guessed it, Mycelium could be the answer to both problems.
Preliminary testing in the field before setting up the MYCOBEES project (site in French) showed promising as 3 independent beekeepers used a mycelium-concoction to feed to weakened bees early spring instead of combining the weaker hives with stronger ones.  This feeding resulted in all fed beehives to grow and deliver a decent honey crop!

So I invite you to join the citizen science project ! Grow some mushrooms and report what it does with your bees (if anything)



Bob Out

Sites to visit - Nine Lectures on Bees - lecture one.

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