First Honeybees in California

«To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.» — Emily Dickinson
I’ve been meaning to visit this location for over a year now, as I first found it while perusing the State’s Historical Landmark Website*. It’s essentially a plaque that was installed at the approximate location of an old ranch that imported in the first Honeybees into CA. The plaque is located in front of the USO office at Mineta International Airport (SJC) in between Terminal A & Terminal B. The inscription on the plaque reads:
«Here, on the 1,939-acre Rancho Potrero de Santa Clara, Christopher A. Shelton in early March 1853 introduced the honeybee to California. In Aspinwall, Panama, Shelton purchased 12 beehives from a New Yorker and transported them by rail, ‘bongo,’ pack mule, and steamship to San Francisco. Only enough bees survived to fill one hive, but these quickly propagated, laying the foundation for California’s modern beekeeping industry.»
It’s a pretty tame tribute to something that’s actually a pretty historically significant event that still affects our everyday lives. So, to liven things up I dug-​up a few fun/​interesting facts** about our friends the HoneyBee:
1) The average worker bee produces about ¹⁄₁₂^th teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
2) A hive of bees will fly 90,000 miles, the equivalent of three orbits around the earth to collect 1 kg of honey.
3) A colony of bees consists of 20,000−60,000 honeybees and one queen. Worker honey bees are female, live for about 6 weeks and do all the work.
4) The bee’s brain is oval in shape and only about the size of a sesame seed, yet it has remarkable capacity to learn and remember things and is able to make complex calculations on distance travelled and foraging efficiency.
5) Americans consume about 285 million pounds of honey each year. On top of that, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that honeybees pollinate 80 percent of the country’s insect crops – meaning bees pollinate over $ 20 billion worth of crops each year.
The plaque isn’t worth going out of your way for; especially since it’s at the airport and there’s no free parking. But, if you’re visiting the USO office, or looking for some time to kill before your flight, then head on over and pay tribute to our bestest insect friend: The Bee.
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**Facts courtesy of:
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