MADEINSITU

Journal

/Jul
2023

João Neto, from Melbionisa, talks about organic beekeeping and his fascination with bees.

How did you become a beekeeper?

My uncle had bees. I remember watching him since I was a boy. I started to help him early on, although at the time I didn’t enjoy it, it was hard work. But I have always loved nature, ‘creatures’ in general. When the time came to choose a career, that was the only thing that made sense to me. I studied zootechnical engineering in Évora, but I almost gave up, the first two years were so theoretical. In the third year, though, things changed. I studied beekeeping with Professor António Murrilho, and I fell in love with bees. Bees are the most incredible creatures – the balance they establish with their environment, the way they organise themselves.

I worked for many years as an apicultural technician after graduating, but that was like extending my studies. It was still very theoretical, and I wanted something more practical. Then, in 2006, I managed to get my own bees, and by 2014 producing honey was my sole activity. Up until 2020 organic apiculture was in sharp expansion, but since then everything has changed, for the worse. Tourism accounted for a significant portion of our sales, so the pandemic – and the travel restrictions it caused – impacted us severely. We had to change our business approach. But now, fortunately, things are getting better again.

What fascinates you the most in the bee universe?

Hives are impressive structures: super-organised, almost self-reliant. Bees are a rarity in the insect world because they maintain functional colonies year-round. Together with ants and termites, they are the only big insect family doing this – we call them social insects. Wasps form colonies, too, but only for part of the year: come winter, the colony is gone, only the queen survives, dormant in a nest, waiting to start again in spring. Bees, like ants, are capable of resisting because they evolved to build sufficient food reserves.

I often say bees will teach us how to live, we have a lot to learn from them. They tell us about climate change, about the pesticides around us. Comparing bee colonies with human societies can lead us to an interesting discussion; it raises questions about how we live and organise ourselves. For instance, bees keep a perfect balance between the size of the colony and the available resources at all times. Also, each colony breeds drones that have the role of mating with queens from other colonies. And it’s funny, because people always talk about bees being hardworking, but the truth is they are highly efficient, they organise so well they don’t need to work for seventy per cent of their time.

" Hives are impressive structures: super-organised, almost self-reliant. Bees are a rarity in the insect world because they maintain functional colonies year-round. Together with ants and termites, they are the only big insect family doing this – we call them social insects. "

In the bee’s world, is one born a queen?

That’s an interesting question. Now that everybody talks about genetics, and what is and isn’t defined by genetics, bees are again a curious example. In a nutshell, when a larva is born – any larva – it feeds on royal jelly for three days. At the end of those days, the overwhelming majority of larvae transition to a diet of pollen, honey and little royal jelly. This diet leads to poor development of the abdomen. That is the reason why worker bees are smaller than their queens – they are female, too, but their reproductive system is completely atrophied.

On the contrary, when the exception happens, and a larva is fed exclusively on royal jelly, that larva will become a queen – a bee with a large abdomen and a powerful reproductive system, capable of laying thousands of eggs per day. It is the royal jelly that crowns the queen. Which is an incredible thing, right? How a food has the power to activate certain genes, and determine the birth of a physiologically different animal. That’s why I say royal jelly is miraculous, it is a mystery food.

To answer your question, I think we can say that the hive decides its queen, with the food they feed the larvae.

Do all bees produce wax? What determines the colour and smell of the wax?

Bees don’t have castes like ants. Worker bees will perform all functions throughout their lives, the function depends on their current life stage. It can be feeding the larvae, cleaning the cells, producing wax, guarding the colony and, finally, venturing out of the hive to search for resources.

The determining factor for the pollen and nectar produced by a hive is the surrounding flora – and that in turn determines the smell and the colour of both honey and wax. Taste, too, of course, in the case of honey.

What do you find most remarkable about beeswax?

Beeswax is a unique material, with unique characteristics. Its texture, malleability and elasticity allow for broad uses in many areas. Bees, of course, use it to build their honeycombs, which are considered to be the most resistant structures in the natural world.

" Beeswax is a unique material, with unique characteristics. (...) Bees, of course, use it to build their honeycombs, which are considered to be the most resistant structures in the natural world. "