willey looked at the creature as an artist, not just as a regular observer, and noticed the hairs on the eyeballs, the hairs on the legs, and all-around “cuteness” that he hadn’t seen before when bees were flying around in his yard.

while he didn’t know it at the time, the bee was sick and died a mere two hours after landing in willey’s studio. he put the bee in the backyard and came back inside to start researching honey bees. that’s when willey discovered a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder.

“i was fascinated that this giant, globally devastating thing was happening, and i had heard nothing about it, not a headline in the newspaper,” willey said.  

colony collapse disorder occurs when hives are abandoned by worker bees without a definitive cause. scientists have pointed to excessive pesticide-use, like roundup, and the presence of varroa mites – parasitic creatures that latch onto bees – as probable instigators of colony collapse.

more than 30 percent of hives in the u.s. collapsed in 2013 due to this phenomenon, according to the environmental protection agency.

altruistic self-removal – where bees remove themselves from a hive if they are sick – is also becoming a more common practice among honey bees who do so for the good of the hive. the bee instinctively realizes that their immune system is collective – it’s based on the hive and not the individual bee.  

beekeepers lost more bees in the summer than the winter months for the first time in 2015, even though hive collapse is more common in the winter. sustainability experts say if colony collapse continues at the same rate, honey bees managed for agricultural purposes will die out by 2035.

the sharp decline in honey bees will also impact agricultural costs, which are estimated to rise $5.7 billion each year, according to a 2011 natural resources defense council report. for major cash crops in california –  like almonds that generate nearly $3 billion each year – the decline in bees could have devastating results as almonds use about half of the honey bees in the united states alone.

now, willey leads the project “the good of the hive.” through the initiative – which he started more than three years ago – willey will paint 50,000 bees in murals around the world, the same amount of bees found in a healthy hive.

willey’s current focus is the smithsonian national zoo, where he will paint hundreds of bees on the walls surrounding the great ape house.

“by painting them really big on a wall and giving it emotional energy, to the bees as a collective, for the individual bees where they are, i think it changes the perception of the person when they’re in their yard with them,” he said.

the mural in d.c. follows the opening of the zoo’s “me and bee” playground in september – an interactive area of the zoo that aims to teach children about the important role of pollinators.

willey said the project could take more than 25 years, giving the initiative’s message time to spread from person to person.  

“that gives us enough time to have things come into focus,” he said. “it can actually be a joyful experience in repairing what needs to be repaired.”

—

video by bridie o’connell and leah potter

however, some jobs done by dogs are a bit more unusual. since 1982 the maryland department of agriculture has had at least one dog as a member of their apiary inspectors team. this practice is not just uncommon though. it does not appear that any other place in the country uses dogs for this purpose, although there is one dog, specially outfitted in his own beekeeping suit, doing the same work in australia.

the canine detectives are trained to sniff out american foulbrood, or afb, in a hive. if afb is detected the dog will sit by the infected hive to notify their handler.

american foulbrood is a very serious bacterial disease, one which infected hives rarely recover from. the disease has two stages, the spore and the vegetative stage. a hive is infected when a worker bee picks up afb spores from an affected colony or contaminated equipment. the spores are transferred to the developing larvae through food, and during the bacterium’s vegetative stage, and the bacteria spores rapidly multiply, creating billions of new spores. when the brood cell is capped and the larvae are sealed the young larvae, usually glistening white, turn a coffee brown then black, and sink to the floor of the cell in a goopy mass. eventually this will dry into a hard scale on the cell’s bottom, which will contain many spores and infect future larvae in the cell.

american foulbrood will eventually kill almost every hive it infects. furthermore, it continues to wreak havoc on the area’s bee population even after the originally infected hive is decimated. bees frequently steal honey and nectar from weak or dead hives, and afb spores can be transmitted to a new hive through this process.

spores can also exist for up to 30 years on beekeeping equipment. if equipment is left unsterilized it will infect other hives that it is used on. the most reliable way to clean equipment and hives is to burn them. unfortunately, even this is not guaranteed to purge the equipment of the bacteria.

given the high possibility for contamination with afb it seems only logical to inspect hives in the most efficient way possible. maryland’s chief apiary inspector, and owner and handler of the current apiary inspection hound, cybil preston can check around 10 hives in 45 minutes. mack, her dog, can check 100 in the same amount of time. over mack’s predecessor, klinker’s entire career 100% of hives he identified as afb positive were confirmed when later tested by the usda. and while mack’s statistics are not currently out, in field testing he correctly identified 100% of infected hives.  

clearly, introducing apiary inspection dogs could drastically improve efficiency in apiary departments all across the united states, and even across the world.

i’ve been a student at the george washington university for three years now, but just a few days ago found the best spot on campus: the roof of lisner hall. why? well not only is the view incredible, but it’s home to one of the world’s most valuable insects, the bees.

head beekeeper and gw senior gabby discafani let me enter her world – and the world of a million hard workers. i was in awe of the whole operation; the bees are incredible to watch.

but how long will this last?

at the end of september, the u.s. fish and wildlife service added bees to the endangered-species list for the first time.

moral of the story: if humans don’t change their attitudes about climate change, we’ll lose one of our most beautiful, valuable, and natural living resources. watch the video to see what i saw, and you’ll never swat another bee again.