A Different (?) Take on Honeybees

[ericpmoss]

This was interesting -- honeybees as a symptom of a problem that needs fixing in a different way.

[j44ke]

He's not so much talking about a problem, is he? As much as he's advocating paying attention to the local environment and the native resources available.

There's a local orchard that grows flowering meadows under their fruit trees. In this agricultural area, the number of bees must be pretty high just from the number of honey producers. And the new-ish market for honey with the various breweries and distilleries that have been locating in the area may mean more bees now than before. I wonder how many farms maintain hives these days? But obviously adding plants that will extend the blooming season will get your farm a permanent mark on the bee dance map.

[ericpmoss]

If I read it correctly, he's saying that modern ag and landscaping demands a uniformity that harms natural pollinators. For example, eliminating dandelions apparently starves wild pollinators of vital early season food. The job then is left to trucked-in honeybees, which over-pollinate, another thing I didn't know was a problem. So he seems to be saying we would be fine if we weren't trying to have valleys of nothing but almonds, but as long as we have the monocultures and obsessive weed control, we'll be stuck needing trucked-in bees.

[j44ke]

That makes sense. Thus the local orchard with the wildflowers growing underneath the trees I guess. There are flowers on the ground even before the tree buds open for leaves.

[ericpmoss]

More on dandelions -- they fix acidic and calcium-deficient soil, pulling it up through their tap root, and depositing it with their decomposing leaves. Once they have the soil fixed, they get crowded out by grasses that need that calcium. And apparently, a region of Poland specializes in dandelion-fed milk. So... another reason to put away the herbicides.

[ericpmoss]

Something very very very interesting, from our mushroom guru, Paul Stametz.

BeeMushroomed Feeder - Save the Bees

Here's the interview about it, and it's a lot of fun: