0:00:01.206,0:00:07.125 (Music) 0:00:14.325,0:00:18.822 These bees are in my backyard[br]in Berkeley, California. 0:00:18.822,0:00:21.221 Until last year,[br]I'd never kept bees before, 0:00:21.221,0:00:25.270 but National Geographic asked me[br]to photograph a story about them, 0:00:25.270,0:00:27.769 and I decided, to be able[br]to take compelling images, 0:00:27.769,0:00:30.253 I should start keeping bees myself. 0:00:30.253,0:00:31.948 And as you may know, 0:00:31.948,0:00:34.572 bees pollinate one third[br]of our food crops, 0:00:34.572,0:00:37.730 and lately they've been having[br]a really hard time. 0:00:37.730,0:00:42.281 So as a photographer, I wanted to explore[br]what this problem really looks like. 0:00:42.281,0:00:45.466 So I'm going to show you[br]what I found over the last year. 0:00:46.276,0:00:47.900 This furry little creature 0:00:47.900,0:00:52.243 is a fresh young bee halfway emerged[br]from its brood cell, 0:00:52.243,0:00:55.283 and bees right now are dealing[br]with several different problems, 0:00:55.283,0:00:59.535 including pesticides, diseases,[br]and habitat loss, 0:00:59.535,0:01:04.146 but the single greatest threat[br]is a parasitic mite from Asia, 0:01:04.146,0:01:06.475 Varroa destructor. 0:01:06.475,0:01:09.354 And this pinhead-sized mite[br]crawls onto young bees 0:01:09.354,0:01:11.699 and sucks their blood. 0:01:11.699,0:01:13.696 This eventually destroys a hive 0:01:13.696,0:01:16.940 because it weakens[br]the immune system of the bees, 0:01:16.940,0:01:20.476 and it makes them more vulnerable[br]to stress and disease. 0:01:21.776,0:01:23.773 Now, bees are the most sensitive 0:01:23.773,0:01:26.513 when they're developing[br]inside their brood cells, 0:01:26.513,0:01:29.624 and I wanted to know[br]what that process really looks like, 0:01:29.624,0:01:32.248 so I teamed up[br]with a bee lab at U.C. Davis 0:01:32.248,0:01:35.343 and figured out how to raise bees[br]in front of a camera. 0:01:35.993,0:01:38.981 I'm going to show you[br]the first 21 days of a bee's life 0:01:38.981,0:01:41.770 condensed into 60 seconds. 0:01:43.763,0:01:48.567 This is a bee egg[br]as it hatches into a larva, 0:01:48.567,0:01:53.012 and those newly hatched larvae[br]swim around their cells 0:01:53.012,0:01:57.335 feeding on this white goo[br]that nurse bees secrete for them. 0:01:59.616,0:02:04.159 Then, their head and their legs[br]slowly differentiate 0:02:04.159,0:02:07.509 as they transform into pupae. 0:02:09.833,0:02:11.853 Here's that same pupation process, 0:02:11.853,0:02:15.243 and you can actually see the mites[br]running around in the cells. 0:02:15.243,0:02:19.510 Then the tissue in their body reorganizes 0:02:19.510,0:02:24.115 and the pigment slowly[br]develops in their eyes. 0:02:26.869,0:02:32.757 The last step of the process[br]is their skin shrivels up 0:02:32.757,0:02:35.245 and they sprout hair. 0:02:35.245,0:02:39.237 (Music) 0:02:48.805,0:02:51.659 So -- (Applause) 0:02:54.703,0:02:57.907 As you can see halfway[br]through that video, 0:02:57.907,0:03:00.461 the mites were running around[br]on the baby bees, 0:03:00.461,0:03:04.390 and the way that beekeepers[br]typically manage these mites 0:03:04.390,0:03:07.404 is they treat their hives with chemicals. 0:03:07.404,0:03:09.670 In the long run, that's bad news, 0:03:09.670,0:03:13.223 so researchers are working[br]on finding alternatives 0:03:13.223,0:03:15.387 to control these mites. 0:03:16.195,0:03:18.963 This is one of those alternatives. 0:03:18.963,0:03:23.328 It's an experimental breeding program[br]at the USDA Bee Lab in Baton Rouge, 0:03:23.328,0:03:27.045 and this queen and her attendant bees[br]are part of that program. 0:03:27.735,0:03:31.430 Now, the researchers figured out 0:03:31.430,0:03:35.152 that some of the bees have[br]a natural ability to fight mites, 0:03:35.152,0:03:39.322 so they set out to breed[br]a line of mite-resistant bees. 0:03:40.782,0:03:43.418 This is what it takes[br]to breed bees in a lab. 0:03:43.418,0:03:46.158 The virgin queen is sedated 0:03:46.158,0:03:51.200 and then artificially inseminated[br]using this precision instrument. 0:03:51.200,0:03:53.478 Now, this procedure allows the researchers 0:03:53.478,0:03:58.500 to control exactly[br]which bees are being crossed, 0:03:58.500,0:04:01.627 but there's a tradeoff[br]in having this much control. 0:04:01.627,0:04:04.832 They succeeded in breeding[br]mite-resistant bees, 0:04:04.832,0:04:07.920 but in that process, those bees[br]started to lose traits 0:04:07.920,0:04:11.685 like their gentleness[br]and their ability to store honey, 0:04:11.685,0:04:14.194 so to overcome that problem, 0:04:14.194,0:04:17.742 these researchers are now collaborating[br]with commercial beekeepers. 0:04:18.252,0:04:23.120 This is Bret Adee opening[br]one of his 72,000 beehives. 0:04:23.120,0:04:27.750 He and his brother run the largest[br]beekeeping operation in the world, 0:04:27.750,0:04:33.409 and the USDA is integrating their[br]mite-resistant bees into his operation 0:04:33.409,0:04:35.052 with the hope that over time, 0:04:35.052,0:04:38.723 they'll be able to select the bees[br]that are not only mite-resistant 0:04:38.723,0:04:43.707 but also retain all of these qualities[br]that make them useful to us. 0:04:44.165,0:04:45.860 And to say it like that 0:04:45.860,0:04:49.157 makes it sound like we're manipulating[br]and exploiting bees, 0:04:49.157,0:04:52.593 and the truth is, we've been doing that[br]for thousands of years. 0:04:52.593,0:04:57.747 We took this wild creature[br]and put it inside of a box, 0:04:57.747,0:04:59.861 practically domesticating it, 0:04:59.861,0:05:03.970 and originally that was[br]so that we could harvest their honey, 0:05:03.970,0:05:06.725 but over time we started losing[br]our native pollinators, 0:05:06.725,0:05:08.420 our wild pollinators, 0:05:08.420,0:05:11.485 and there are many places now[br]where those wild pollinators 0:05:11.485,0:05:15.284 can no longer meet the pollination[br]demands of our agriculture, 0:05:15.284,0:05:20.508 so these managed bees have become[br]an integral part of our food system. 0:05:20.508,0:05:23.227 So when people talk about saving bees, 0:05:23.227,0:05:25.360 my interpretation of that 0:05:25.360,0:05:28.588 is we need to save[br]our relationship to bees, 0:05:28.588,0:05:33.592 and in order to design new solutions, 0:05:33.592,0:05:38.693 we have to understand[br]the basic biology of bees 0:05:38.693,0:05:44.936 and understand the effects[br]of stressors that we sometimes cannot see. 0:05:45.909,0:05:49.114 In other words, we have[br]to understand bees up close. 0:05:49.114,0:05:51.384 Thank you. 0:05:51.384,0:05:53.198 (Applause)