Show us the honey

The presence of honey bees in Dubai has declined.

I remember a time when a huge colony of bees occupied a section of a first-floor veranda in a Karama apartment. The municipality’s pest control department would be called in to remove many such colonies from private compounds.

Today they are found sparingly in some farms and orchards. But recently, I sighted a honeycomb on an ironwood tree at Safa Park. The bees were collecting honey from the blooms of exotic Australian Conocarpus and other flowering plants.

Why has the population of honey bees gone down? Even the people from the bee-culture have told me that honey production has declined.

The first thing that came to my mind is the civic body’s aggressive pest control management that cleared their habitats. Secondly, the city is growing at such a speed that fallow lands with vegetation are wanting. Also people have become less tolerant: If they see a bee-hive they are likely to call the pest control.

Another factor is the overuse of insecticides and pesticides, and the introduction of ornamental plants that have showy leaves and branches but not the nectar-bearing flowers. Also, the lack of rain reduces the natural flower productions, depriving the bees of water that they need.