The Cute and Terrifying Creatures (3)
As Harold Cooper departed, Frederick, having heard the news, hurried over to the apiary.
“What on earth happened?”
I explained the situation, feeling a bit embarrassed. Frederick looked just as flustered.
“I-is that so? Then what are we going to do?”
“The contract is already in motion, so the lease will proceed as scheduled. They said it’s difficult to send another manager at this point. Since it’s come to this, Brandon will effectively be managing everything, and the one remaining person will only be there to assist.”
Typically, 500 beehives require one full-time employee and one assistant for tasks like transporting hives and maintaining equipment. With Harold quitting and walking out, only the assistant remained. While we might need one or two part-timers during the peak pollination season in February and March, this was the standard setup for normal operations.
Frederick looked at his son, clearly worried.
“Will you be alright?”
“Well... wait, I have to do all of this?”
I nodded at his obvious question.
“It might look like a lot, but it’s not enough to justify hiring several people.”
“......”
Brandon stared at the 300 hives—200 more than he had expected—and was rendered speechless. He turned to me and asked, “So you’re saying 200 more are coming on top of this?”
“That’s right.”
“Ha... if I have to do this alone...”
“That’s how farming goes. You learn through the struggle.”
I believed it was far better for Brandon to learn proper beekeeping techniques than to be taught by someone with outdated, incorrect knowledge.
The Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that began in 2006 refers to a phenomenon where most worker bees suddenly disappear, leaving behind the queen and their food stores (honey and pollen). To overcome this sudden catastrophe, one had to practice beekeeping with accurate, scientific knowledge.
As a frustrated Brandon hung his head, Frederick stroked the back of his son’s hair and gave a wry smile. He then looked at me with concern.
“There must be so much to learn. Is it possible for a beginner?”
“He can learn the basics from the remaining staff, and I will teach him the beekeeping knowledge he needs.”
“But wouldn’t it be better if that man, Harold, helped out?”
I shook my head.
“If he stays here, he won’t follow Brandon’s instructions. Instead, he’d likely sabotage Brandon’s efforts and insist that his own way is the only correct one. That would only confuse Brandon and lead him down the wrong path.”
“Yeah, I suppose that’s true. People with long-standing experience tend to trust their own ways implicitly.”
“Furthermore, the current ecosystem for bees is not in a good state. If we aren’t careful, more than half of the hives we’ve brought in could disappear.”
My words shocked both Frederick and Brandon.
“T-that many?”
“Yes. The situation is more serious than you think. You can tell just by looking at how rapidly hive rental fees are rising. The fact that this situation persists means that the bees we’ve rented could vanish within a year or two.”
Frederick, who had initially taken it lightly, now fully understood why I had effectively chased the manager away.
“In that case, we must follow your lead unconditionally. If they had possessed proper knowledge, the bee population wouldn’t be declining so rapidly.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
I was relieved that Mr. Frederick trusted me based on his own experience. If he hadn’t, it would have been quite difficult to persuade him.
At that moment, Juan Hernández, who had come with Harold but was left awkwardly alone, approached us hesitantly.
“Um... what should I do?”
“You can work here with Brandon. If Brandon sets the overall direction, you can assist him and let him know if any problems arise.”
“Actually, Harold gave me some instructions before he left. Should I continue with those?”
“What kind of tasks are they?”
“I’m treating them for mites.”
I frowned immediately upon hearing that.
“You have mites?”
“It would be hard to find any beekeeping operation in California right now that is completely free of mites. Everyone has them to some degree.”
True enough. If they hadn’t been that widespread, the American bee colonies wouldn’t have collapsed so drastically. It was true that by the spring of 2007, mites had already spread significantly.
“Stop the chemical treatments.”
“What? If we stop the treatments, it’ll be a disaster! You know what a Varroa mite is, right?”
“Yes, of course I do.”
The Varroa destructor is a parasite that attaches itself to bees and feeds on their blood. About 1.5mm in size, this flat, reddish mite clings to worker bees, larvae, and pupae, sucking their hemolymph and transmitting viruses through the wounds.
If you imagine a human with hundreds of blood-sucking ticks on their back, you can understand how much pain the bees are in.
What’s even more terrifying is that beyond the physical damage, the Varroa mite acts as a vector for viruses. It’s a catastrophe for any bee colony, causing Deformed Wing Virus (DWV), which leads to wing deformities and inability to fly; Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV), which causes neurological paralysis and loss of direction; and Black Queen Cell Virus (BQCV), which causes queen larvae to rot black.
“Then why...?”
“You’ve been using things like Coumaphos or Fluvalinate, right?”
He nodded, looking surprised.
“Yes...”
“The more mites there are in the hive, the less effective those become. And since you’ve been using the same chemicals repeatedly, you’ve likely created mites that are resistant to them, much like antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Continuing to use the same chemicals in that situation won’t help; it only builds up the mites’ resistance and stresses the bees out.”
Juan blinked, nodding blankly. It didn’t matter if he didn’t understand; there was someone else who needed to.
“You understand, right?”
“I suppose so... but then how do we catch them?”
“I’ll teach you from now on.”
I stood up and walked toward the area where the hives were gathered, with Frederick, Brandon, and Juan following behind.
“First, let’s put on our protective gear. Brandon, write this down in your notebook.”
After everyone had donned rubber gloves, boots, and veils, I opened a hive. The small, cute, yet terrifying creatures were swarming inside. I had opened the hive with confidence, but perhaps my instinctual fear was different from my intellectual knowledge; I found myself instinctively pulling my face back as I lifted the frame.
The bees were huddled together, and I could see tiny red dots clinging to them.
“Look here... Varroa mites lay eggs and reproduce inside the bees’ brood cells, and they especially prefer drone (male bee) cells over worker cells. So, we’re going to intentionally create drone cells that the mites love, and when they congregate inside, we’ll remove them entirely.”
Juan, watching from behind, muttered, “Now that you mention it, that does make sense.”
Creating a drone frame (a honeycomb board exclusively for drones) to lure mites and then removing it once the larvae are capped is called Drone Brood Trapping.
“And if there are mites on the bees, put fine powdered sugar in a mesh bag and sprinkle it evenly over the frames. When the bees groom each other, the mites will fall off.”
“Oh—really? If that works, that’s a great method.”
Brandon’s eyes widened as he listened.
“That’s right. The sugar particles also weaken the mites’ adhesive feet. So, the mites naturally fall to the bottom of the hive, where they die or are pushed out. It’s a good idea to place a sticky board on the bottom before you sprinkle the powdered sugar.”
Everyone nodded at my explanation, and Brandon diligently took notes with his rubber-gloved hands.
“The best part about using powdered sugar is that it’s harmless to the bees and doesn’t contaminate the honey or pollen. You just need to repeat it two or three times a week.”
“Wow... to do that for every single hive...”
“You’ll have to be very diligent, won’t you?”
“I... suppose so. But I’m curious, do we sell all the honey produced here?”
He must have been wondering about that, too.
“Not for the next two years, but it’s possible after we acquire the farm. However, since this is a farm for pollination, the profits will be much lower than a farm dedicated to honey production. And we must always leave about 30% of the honey, because taking it all is bad for the bees’ growth.”
As Brandon nodded, I continued.
“Now, the most crucial part of catching mites is to artificially interrupt the brood cycle. Since mites need larvae to reproduce, we stop the egg-laying for a certain period to starve them to death.”
Juan, who had been listening, looked impressed.
“Oh—that’s a brilliant method. Since mites only reproduce in capped brood cells.”
“Exactly. If you isolate the queen elsewhere for about seven to ten days, all the existing larvae will hatch, ending the mite’s breeding cycle. During this time, you can combine the powdered sugar treatment with chemical controls, but you must rotate the chemicals. That’s how you prevent resistance.”
“Okay. Got it.”
Brandon nodded and scribbled it down.
In fact, there was another method called Hygienic Behavior Breeding. Some bees can detect mite-infested cells by smell, tear off the caps, and discard the larvae. This method involves selecting and breeding such smart bees so the colony can regulate the mite population on its own.
There was also a method of exposing the hive to high temperatures for a certain period since mites are sensitive to heat, but that required an expert who knew how to manage the timing and the bees’ stress levels. I didn’t tell Brandon, as I couldn’t trust him with that yet.
After carefully sharing my knowledge one by one and confirming that Brandon and Juan had learned it well, I was finally able to escape the bee hell.
A few days later, I went back to the almond farm to check on their progress, and to my surprise, Brandon was working quite skillfully. He didn’t seem afraid of the bees, and his quick hand movements made him look like someone who had been beekeeping for years.
“This is unexpected.”
Mr. Frederick, who had been watching with a satisfied expression beside me, said, “Even though he grumbles, he put in quite a bit of effort to study what you taught him. He worked hard with that thick head of his.”
In truth, the information I gave him wasn’t overwhelmingly vast. It was at a level that even Mr. Frederick could memorize quickly if he learned it. Still, the fact that Brandon, who only ever thought about playing, was doing this well was likely because he didn’t want to be nagged by me.
“He doesn’t seem to have much fear of the bees anymore?”
“He got stung quite a bit in the two days after you left. I was worried because he only ever spent his childhood fighting, but in that regard, he’s surprisingly tough.”
“I’m glad he has that going for him, at least.”
“Tell me about it. Even now, he’ll probably come back with a sting or two when he’s done, but he doesn’t seem scared at all.”
“If he keeps doing this well, there won’t be any problems with this year’s almond harvest.”
“But you know...”
Mr. Frederick tilted his head and said in a low voice, “If the price of almonds keeps rising little by little... that means processed almond products will do well, too, right?”
“Of course, they would.”
“Hmm...”
“Why? I didn’t recommend that you enter the processing industry.”
“Right... I know... I’m just thinking about it.”
It seemed he had found new vitality in his old age, as he was clearly engrossed in business planning.
Just then, Christopher called.
“Hello?”
“Brian! It’s nothing major, but I mentioned this before, didn’t I? Let’s enter a different competition this year instead of the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.”
“We did talk about that.”
Since we had already won a major award in California, we hadn’t entered Echelon or Sylphid into the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition this year, aiming for international recognition instead.
They were already wines that had won Double Gold, and while it would be nice to get a higher grade, Christopher had suggested we enter international wine competitions now that the authority of American wine had risen following the 30th-anniversary re-enactment of the Judgment of Paris. I didn’t mind, so I let him do as he pleased.
Christopher must have been analyzing which wine competition would be most advantageous to enter.
“I have Sylphid with me, so that’s no problem, but I’m out of Echelon. Do you happen to have any at the winery?”
“Not a lot, but maybe about half a case...”
“Perfect. That’s enough. I’ll come by to pick it up.”
I asked him before he could hang up.
“By the way, what competition is it?”
“The Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA). It’s the world’s premier wine competition held in the UK.”
(Warning: Insect image)
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Parasitic mite that feeds on bee hemolymph and transmits deadly viruses.
{@PIC:801467}