Beekeeper speaks at library

Robin Pigot, a beekeeper in the Hudsonville area, was guest speaker at the Town and Country Garden Club meeting March 12. The meeting was held at the Marshall County Library.

Originally from the south of France near the border with Spain, Pigot has master’s degrees in engineering, economics, biology and entomology.

He has lived in many European countries including Russia.

Pigot said beekeeping is a hobby, but it surely is one he takes very seriously, building hives by request from many people in the region and also splitting hives as a way of propagating them.

Survival of humanity depends upon the pollinators, he said.

Wasps are occasionally pollinators, but bees are the purposeful pollinators, he said.

Some crops like corn and wheat are pollinated by the wind, he said. But cantaloupe, melons, pears and almonds are dependent on bees in order to produce the seed for the next generation of plants and also as food for humans and animals.

“Intensification of agriculture has pushed out the bare soil for native bees,” Pigot said. “Native bees make their nests by digging out a hole in the bare soil.

He said some honey bees have been imported to pollinate crops.

Beekeepers charge about $200 a hive for two-weeks rent to pollinate almond crops in California, he said.

The hives then are moved to the canola (mustard) crops in Canada and then over to the east coast of the States to pollinate fruit crops like apples, pears, and cranberries.”

Pigot is a master beekeeper from Cornell University.

In 2003, Pigot was recognized in Marshall County as Conservationist of the Year by the Marshall County Soil and Water Conservation board of directors.

Pigot’s conservation efforts in Hudsonville extend not only to preserving bee colonies but to the preservation of habitat for all native species, both plant and animal.

Indirectly, Pigot is preserving life for humanity.

“He is a true friend and steward of the environment,” said Jane Heineke, his neighbor and fellow conservationist, along with her husband Tom.

“We are lucky he has agreed to share his time and expertise with us today,” Heineke said.

Pigot’s presentation included a trove of slides illustrating the different families of bees and teaching how to distinguish bees from wasps, flies and other insects. And he presented details of the life cycle of bees.

There are seven families of bees, six of which live in the United States and one living in Australia.

There are some 20,000 to 30,000 species of bees in the world and 96 insect families.

There are about 111 bee genera in the United States.

The brood is raised by mothers in the nest. The honey bee queen mates with between five and 15 drones. All workers cooperate to raise the sisters. The mother and daughters all live in the same hive together. There is a division of labor with one queen per hive who is the mother of all the progeny.

Honeybees, not native to the United States, were brought in by settlers to Savannah of Germany, from France to Louisiana and to New York from Italy during the 17^th century. .

Native bees dig a hole to lay eggs.

Some bees are very small.

Bees have been around for millions of years, dating back to the Jurassic period about 110 million to 120 million years ago. Non-bird dinosaurs are dated back to the Mesozoic era between 66 million to 245 million years ago.

Fossilized bees have been preserved in amber dating back to 100 million years ago and share characteristics of current native bees.

Pigot said fossilized flowers date back to 40 million years when there was not much diversity until about 66 million years ago in flowering plants. He said about 110 million years ago a wasp decided to turn vegan and some wasps stopped feeding on insects and began feeding on pollen.

Bumble bees feed on the nectar of flowers as well and have a long proboscis that is well adapted to getting nectar from tubed or trumpet shaped flowers. As they feed on the nectar, the bumble bee also gathers pollen on the hairs of its body and as they go from flower to flower they cross pollinate.

“There is a strong relationship in the shape of the bee and the shape of the flower,” he said.

A honeybee cannot get to the nectar in some flowers as easily as the bumble bee and sometimes must chew a hole in the flower near the base to get nectar.

“A hole would be more destructive than constructive,” Pigot said.

The insect and the flower enjoy a relationship where the pistil is coated with nectar and the stamens contain the pollen. The pollen is used as a rich source of protein for the bee larvae.

The life span of the adult bee is very short so the bee must synchronize its hatching to the appearance of flowers and feed on nectar while gathering pollen.

Colony collapse caused by mites are devastating about 60 percent of all hives in the U.S. Every year, Pigot said. One species, the African killer bee, is somewhat resistant to the mite.

Pigot thinks imported bees for commercial purposes may have brought the mites to the States. In just two seasons, the mite spread all over the United States and Hawaii. He said authorities should be careful about what is imported.

Bees can be identified by their long antennae and presence of four clear wings. Wasps have long antennae and four clear wings that are folded back flat. Flies have very stubby antenna and two clear wings and large eyes.

Bees pass through four stages: eggs, larvae, pupae and adults. Bee eggs measure approximately 1 mm long. Queen bees examine their eggs before placing them side by side at the center of the comb frame, with pollen surrounding them. Queens can lay up to 2,000 eggs each day throughout the spring.

The native bee females prepare the nest and lay eggs which develop to pupae which emerge in cycles. Native bees are active for about three months and afterward the eggs become pupae to emerge the next year. There is no overlap of generations in the nest. Adult bees lives just a few weeks, but the prepupa remain underground about three-fourths of the year and hatch out in cycles when the first blooming flowers open. The first ones die by April.

Bees can lie dormant in diapause as a pupa for years and years, sometimes hatching out on 10 year cycles.

The pupa looks like a nymph but can live through very cold temperatures.

Honeybees need about 40 pounds of honey for a large hive to overwinter.

Bumblebees are found as far north as the arctic circle while honeybees do not usually go further north than Canada.

Pigot said beekeeping is a hobby and he estimates he has built between 100 to 150 hives, installed in Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and North Carolina. He also builds hives for someone in the state of Washington.

He said his hives are lined with lemon grass to attract bees and a piece of old comb is added. The lemon grass has an odor (pheromone) attractive to honey bees.

Pigot has lived 12 years in Hudsonville and settled there because of friends he made at Strawberry Plains Audubon Center.