Dr. Yoon Kim wants to keep the bees

By Peggy Laizure

September 05, 2008 02:16 am

— Bees not only produce honey, they pollinate all flowers, crops and vegetation. They are disappearing and that spells disaster for the human race. One Oklahoma man, Dr. Yoon Kim, is trying to keep the honey flowing.
Kim teaches part time but is working full time to save the bees. He is a University of Oklahoma graduate and has taught English for more than 20 years in local colleges -- Langston, Oklahoma City University, St. Gregory's -- and he was dean at a school in Little Rock, Ark. He received his master's at OU and his Ph.D at Oklahoma State University.
"Yes, I'm a turncoat," he said.
His interest in bees began more than 20 years ago when his father had two colonies. Kim reads, does research and has colonies at his home.
"I would love to save more bees in the Norman area," Kim said. "I have made this my personal mission. I have been saving feral bees."
Kim saves the bees because "they have survived the mites," he said.
There are two kinds of mites, he said. One is tracheal mites that attaches itself to the bees trachea and passes from bee to bee. It came to America in the '80s. The other mite is a varroa mite that attacks the thorax or wing area and sucks blood out of the bees. It also came to America in the '80s from Asia where it wiped out not only kept bees but feral bees.
"As far as I know through extensive reading and research," Kim said, "the colony cleft disorder that people hear about at this point appears to be more than one cause."
The number one reason bees are disappearing is the misuse of insecticides and herbicides, Kim said.
The first thing people do when they are bothered by bees is "go to Lowe's and find a chemical spray," Kim said. What people don't know is that bees are somewhat protected by federal law, he added.
Spraying the bees can kill the entire colony but within 21 days the brood will rehatch, Kim said. The brood is protected inside the sealed comb and after hatching, will come back to the carcinogenic comb or other bees will try to rob the contaminated honey.
"The nasty chemicals robbing the leftover honey from the spray can impact bee keepers within a three or four mile radius," Kim said. "That bee keeper won't know his honey is tainted."
Kim said the best way to get rid of the bees is to remove the nest and seal off the void or the crack with insulation foam. The bees will find a nest in buildings that are not insulated or the insulation has fallen over the years.
Another problem with spraying chemicals is cross pollination, Kim said. Corn, for example, is already low in protein and nutrients. The bees collect the pollen seeded by systematic pesticide neonicotineoid that kills the host insect in a sustained way and it seems to stay on the soil. When the farmer plants the same crop year after year, (monocrop), there is a culminated affect.
A big contributor to the bee decline is habitat loss. The constant encroachment to accommodate human people is a big problem, Kim said.
"Because of the increasing population we are turning all non-agricutural and idle land into crop land to accommodate the growing human development," he said.
Loss of habitat also has decreased the wildflower growth. When the bees gather nectar from one type of crop and not enough wildflowers, they experience the same poor diets and imbalance that many Americans have.
The last reason for bee decline Kim cited is the global trafficking of pathogens.
"Airplanes are bringing in all kinds of disease propagated throughout the world," Kim said.
African honey bees were found in Pottawatomie County in 2004. They have been sighted in Cleveland and Payne counties, Kim said.
In 1957, a Brazilian bee researcher wanted to invigorate the European bees, Kim said. An African drone escaped and the bees have been migrating north 200 miles per year. Kim said he, and other experts, thought the Oklahoma winters were too cold. Most of the African bees have been found in New Mexico, Arizona, California and are now spreading to Arkansas, Louisiana and Florida but are gradually moving north.
Kim thinks the African gene is dominant but with the recessive European gene, there is a diluting affect going on "which is good."
Three years ago, Jim and Jo Mustoe, who live at 24th Avenue SE and Tecumseh Road noticed there were a lot of bees buzzing around a window on the north side of their home. The bees didn't bother them so the Mustoes didn't bother the bees.
He nor his wife have gotten stung and the bees don't seem to bother their two dogs, Shadow and Tadpole.
But last summer Jim had to wait until dark when the bees were settled to mow that part of his yard. This summer the bees have stung the person who mows their yard.
"The bees haven't been much of a problem until this summer so we didn't deal with it," Jim Mustoe said. "We have to deal with it now."
Jim Mustoe worked at the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History for eight years. He was there a couple of week ago telling another facility member about his bee problem. The facility memeber told Mustoe a mutual friend had had Kim remove the bees from her house last spring.
Kim found two colonies of Italian bees at the Mustoe home, one of 15,000 that were 2-and-a-half-years-old and the other one, 10,000 about 2 years old, Kim said.
He said the Italian bees were brought to America in 1859 because honey was the only sweetener they had.
Kim was able to harvest about a gallon of honey and he gave the Mustoes a half gallon with the comb.
He captured both queens and has them in a new brood chamber and supers (honey collectors). He wants to see how long they can survive without being treated.
And because the nectar flow season or bloom period, is over in Oklahoma, Kim said, he will feed the bees sugar water. The nectar flow season starts about mid April ends early July. Farther north, Canada, Minnesota, the Dakotas and even Alaska has a longer nectar flow season, four to six months. Canada produces more honey than America, Kim said.
Kim sells his honey exclusively to the Shawnee feed store and a roadside stand on Highway 9 in Shawnee. His honey is "really pure, so well known in this area that I am usually sold out by Christmas," he said. His honey is raw, local and contains local pollination.
Kim also has rescued bees in Meeker and Seminole. He said Norman was new territory for him.
"I really pray that people simply don't spray and kill the bees. We are doing enough damage to our environment and we don't need to kill them like that," Kim said.