How a tree from Down Under helped Israel’s bees
A spring-only flowering season left Israeli beekeepers struggling to find blossom for their hives. Now a new project appears to be saving the day, and increasing honey production to boot.
Israel may be a desert, going six months of the year without rain, but local bee populations are thriving and honey production rising thanks to a new flowering tree brought over from Australia.
It’s not a good time for honeybee populations worldwide. All over the globe bee numbers are dwindling, as hives are hit by Colony Collapse Disorder - an ailment which an Israeli company, Beeologics, claims to have now developed a vaccination for. Last winter alone, more than 36 percent of the US bee colonies collapsed, affecting honey production, and the one-third of all food production that requires pollination - from fruits and nuts to the dairy and beef cows that feed on alfalfa.
Israel has 450 beekeepers in the country, who manufacture 3,600 tons of honey annually for growing local consumption and for export. Like in many desert countries around the world, Israel’s beekeepers face difficulties because the majority of native plants and flowers blossom only once a year after the winter rains.
“Most of Israel’s trees and shrubs flower in the spring,” David Brand, chief forester and head of the forest department at the Keren Kayemeth Leyisrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF), tells ISRAEL21c. This means that in other seasons, hungry bees have to be fed sugar solutions or transported to parts of the country where flowers are still in bloom - both expensive and messy propositions for apiaries.
Trees that remember their roots
Brand, working with Dr. Dan Aizikovich, a professor at Tel Aviv University, and the Israel Honey Board looked for a solution and came up with the idea of bringing eucalyptus trees from Australia - what they call “mega-producers”, which produce blooms all year round. “They have wonderful flowers, a lot of nectar and pollen,” says Brand. “We thought that since the seasons in the two countries are so opposite, maybe the trees would ‘remember’ their origin and flower at the time they were needed to do so in Israel.”
The KKL-JNF began introducing a variety of the species to Israel 12 years ago. “We started with the seeds and seedlings, and established trial plots all over Israel to investigate which species were suitable” for Israel’s climate, says Brand. “We also tested those trees to see whether or not - although they had wonderful flowers, etc., - the bees would be attracted to them,” Brand adds.
After two years of extensive trial and error testing at KKL-JNF nurseries nationwide, Brand and Aizikovich found the right plant and bees began to pollinate the flowers while collecting nectar to be made into honey.
VERY COOL!