May 20 is an important day because it is World Bee Day, an international day to acknowledge the role of bees as pollinators in our ecosystem. Bees are critical to the global food supply. About one-third of all the food we eat would suffer dire consequences if honeybees vanished. If you really want to understand bees and their hives, you need to realize that the queen bee isn’t just a figurehead but is the genetic engine of a colony that’s key to a hive’s entire survival. A queen mates only once in her life — but that single event is anything but simple; she is more important in the bee world than any queen could ever be in our human world.
A bee colony is a superorganism. Inside a hive, tens of thousands of bees function as one living system. At the center is the queen, whose sole job is to lay eggs — up to 2,000 a day in peak season. Prominent beekeeper Bill Hesbach will discuss the mystery and beauty of bee flight, the queen’s mating flight and the process of fertilization. She mates with multiple drones (males) in midair — typically 10 to 20 — in rapid succession. Each drone dies immediately after mating, a biological sacrifice to pass on his genetics. (Humans would be arrested for trying this!)
Bill will also discuss how bees run their society with a surprising democratic structure, and the fact that the biggest challenge to bees isn’t honey production — it’s survival. Bees face pressure from parasites like the varroa mite, pesticides and habitat loss.
He is a Connecticut beekeeper with a background in engineering. He is a Certified Master Beekeeper at the Eastern Apicultural Society and a graduate of the University of Montana’s Master Beekeeping Program. He is also the president of the Connecticut Beekeepers Association, a group of beekeepers located throughout the state, and is on the board of directors of the Eastern Apicultural Society. The Connecticut Beekeepers Association is the largest organization in the state dedicated to supporting beekeepers, educating the public and promoting healthy honeybee populations across the state.
Bill teaches bee biology and various beekeeping methods at meetings and workshops hosted by regional clubs and organizations. He is an active member of the Eastern Apicultural Society and part of its Master Beekeeper certification program. He is also a regular speaker at national beekeeping seminars and the recipient of the 2019 Eastern Apiculture Society’s “Distinguished Speaker Award.”
He operates Wing Dance Apiary in Cheshire, Conn., where he manages a sideline beekeeping operation that provides raw honey and other hive products to the local community. He is a published author with articles appearing in Bee Culture — The Magazine of American Beekeeping, Bee Craft, which is Britain’s best-selling beekeeping magazine, and The American Bee Journal, the oldest English-speaking bee publication in the world.