Local bee populations this year ....

[Crazy Horse]

I've never seen so many bees out back in our garden as this year. And I think I have read over the past number of years that they are in trouble for survival. Not sure about that. A week ago the raspberries were the center of attention, you could hear the buzzing sound from the house if things were quiet outside. We've had the garden over 50 years and the raspberries over 40 of those, I've never seen a crop like this year. I did some reading on line, there are 375 species of "bees" in Alberta, that's about half of the known species in the whole country up here. Most probably don't appear to be what we think of bees or honey bees but they are bees and they pollinate and I suspect a lot of them (maybe all of them) have honey hives somewhere in the area. Maybeg somebody here with bee experience can comment further .....

 

[MM-TX]

The massive die-offs of the US in the last few years in the news has been mostly honey bees of commercial pollinators. Not rotating their miticides for virola and poison on crops has led to colony collapse is the short answer. Since pollination is a big business they will adjust.

 

[JIM MN]

We need to help the honeybees and the monarch butterflys? No honeybees, no fruits and vegetables, for the farmers low soybean yields. How can we help?

 

[M-MAN]

We had more honey bees early spring than I've seen in my life.

 

[RedMF40]

Purely anecdotal but as a kid (I’m 63 now) I’d have to watch my step going barefoot in the clover. Or else I’d end up with a big foot, blown up like a balloon. I don’t see nearly that many honeybees now.

In my adult years I kept a few hives going, mostly out of fascination for the honeybee. I did harvest some honey but my interest was mainly keeping healthy hives that could make it through the winter.

 

[da.bees]

If I had a single guess as to why we are seeing more bees this year than normal, I would attribute it to amount and timing of rain we've received. I suspect that rain rinsed off a lot of insecticides that would have otherwise taken a toll on pollinators. More and more people are using hose-end sprayers to cover their entire yard. I have no objection to applying insecticide as long as it's done in a way that has minimum impact on non-targeted things.

 

[Texasmark]

Well I got into raising honey bees this year. Honey bee raising is a big deal in my hood. Lots of activity. Problem is that the county is exploding with new residents and lots of farm land is now paved. So far, the increase in inhabitants on my road are all folks that want out of the city and show it by the way they manage their property.

 

[Timmycornpicker]

I have been seeing more native species as of late, but not European honeybees. Unlike in the past, where everything got mowed/sprayed to keep things 'neat', I'm leaving various patches of wildflowers and clovers around the yard and farm.

 

[GChief]

Honey bees are not a native species. There are plenty of native pollinators if we provide the habitat for them.

 

[paul]

Honey bees are not a native species. There are plenty of native pollinators if we provide the habitat for them.

My understanding is tiny harmless wasps we don’t really pay attention to do most of the natural pollinating.

Nice to see bees if they are calm seeing me. Ha ha. They come and go in cycles, as most of nature does. Even if the honey bees aren’t natually native.

Paul

 

[MM-TX]

We need to help the honeybees and the monarch butterflys? No honeybees, no fruits and vegetables, for the farmers low soybean yields. How can we help?

The best thing an individual can do to help pollinators is to not poison their food.

 

[Texasmark]

I have been seeing more native species as of late, but not European honeybees. Unlike in the past, where everything got mowed/sprayed to keep things 'neat', I'm leaving various patches of wildflowers and clovers around the yard and farm.

I mowed rather than sprayed but as you, I left patches of flowers and planted a considerable amount. The most productive of the seed types I bought was the Black Eyed Susan. Really made a good showing for a summer flower. My daughter and I are in this together and every time she comes up here she points out the flowering "weeds" I'm supposed to leave alone. The worst of the batch is the Milkweed.....for the Monarch Butterflies. I hate those things and don't appreciate the neighbors who neglect their pastures and the wind blows their little parachute seeds over to my place. If you don't control them, over time that's all you will have in your pasture!

 

[da.bees]

Clovers are an all-around good plant. Besides feeding pollinators, it's good grazing and improves soil. I'm with you on Black Eyed Susan,as we speak there's a bunch in full bloom along the road and 3 small patches on perimeter of my yard. Every year as they begin fading I mow around plants here and there so they fully mature and shed a crop of seed.

 

[caterpillar guy]

We get a lot of volunteer clover growing around the farm. I leave sod waterways in most of the hollows so I still have some dirt to work. Otherwise it would be washed down to the swamps or ditches. I believe still one fo the biggest bee killer is all the things sprayed by the public to keep the skeeters at bay around their houses. Bithrin Will kill them which is one of the thing used by most to keep them at bay around the yard. Since most seed is treated and stuck in the ground I doubt that is much of a problem for bees. Now if they are spraying an insecticide then that would do it. I don't know how a person would raise much for friut without some kind of insecticide unless you want wormy fruit. I'm thinking of nexy year some how using diatomaceous earth out on the Black caps (raspberries only black and grow wild ) To help wit keeping the frutiflies off from them nothing like letting them set after washing and picking over and finding little worms about a 1/4 inch long crawling out of the berry. they are fruit fliy worms hatching out in the berries from laying eggs in them. Read where they winter in the ground and on tree tops .Can't get to the tree tops so thought maybe it would helpp and then put down some milky spore for the japanese beetles which is applied to the ground fairly early in spring about the time the bees would start coming around from the hive till mid may.Though if it was applied after things had greened up a bit it would not be so detrimental to them since they would have more options for feeding on. Don't know if it would be a problem for bees anyway since it would be washed in with the first rain.