Where Have All the Bees Gone?

I'm actively trying to replace the open space around my house with wildflower meadows, the lawn having been replaced by "weeds", moss, and bare dirt as my wood rows and lack of chemicals has largely killed the grass. I've failed to master the art of gardening and getting store bought wildflowers to grow to blooms, but the native wild flowers are spreading.

I can pretty much be sure I'll find at least one type of bee flitting from flower to flower any time the sun shines. I think I've seen at least two types.

My lot is wooded, and I'm cutting for firewood to open up the canopy and encourage the hardwoods over popular and pine. This opens up small meadows and the brush I pile up, which I read provides bee habitate.

My neighbor is an avid gardner who avoids pesticides and plants lots of flowers for indoor use. Across the road my neighbor has a variety of flowers. And we are all encouraging birds.

Am we seeing too few bees, or are we creating on of the few islands of native pollinators?

What more can we do?

I've been an avid gardener for years, and live in an neighborhood that has lots of apple trees. We've noticed the decline in bees, and I had an interest in the subject. My wife gave me as a Christmas gift a couple a years ago a course on beekeeping at the Essex County Beekeepers Assoc. down at the Topfield Fairgrounds in Mass.

We took the course together, and started with one hive last year, now we have two. The amount of apples and pears pollinated on the neighborhood trees has gone up dramatically. Our garden has improved, and we think of it as doing our part for the natural environment. Next year we'll probably get some honey!

John

I'm wondering if science has discovered what caused the diminished firefly populations in recent years, and if that may be what is causing the honeybee population to suffer.

I am a bee keeper in the Monadnock region and I tell people the best thing they can do for bees is to let the dandilions and clover grow in your lawn. Fallow areas are also important for honey bees as well as wild bees. And join a local beekeeping club likie the Monadnock beekeepers!
Steven

Link to: New Buds of Spring

I am a big fuzzy bumble bee buzzing
in my garden among the new buds of Spring
The woman that tends my garden
also delights in the smell of the sweetest thing
But when I am buzzing among the flowers
she doesn’t come too near
Could it be that for me she has only fear?

Her little boy is her only child
and they live at the farm by the creek
Alone he is with no other children
to play games of hide and seek
His father keeps bees in a box for their honey
The boy plays his games with the bees instead
and he thinks it’s so funny

Sometimes he torments them
throws rocks at their house
Then they chase him all around
in a game of cat and mouse
The honey bees are always around him
so he learns to calm his fear
Even though he is stung many times
he never sheds a tear

Once a Queen of the honey bees left the box
to find a new place to nest
She came into the boy’s house
and found a good place to rest
Her workers followed
and they built her a new home
In the wall next to the bed where the boy slept
so he would not have far to roam

Every night he went to sleep
with the sound of buzzing bees in his ears
It was a big buzzing sound
that came through his wall in those years
One fine Spring day the boy came
into my garden where I buzz
He called out to me…

Ho there big bumble bee!
will you let me play with your fuzz?

When I alighted on an unfolding blossom
he came close and studied me with his big eyes
Then he reached out and touched me
please believe me for I tell you no lies

I was already so full of nectar
and heavy with pollen that I could not play
But his finger was so gentle
as he stroked my fuzzy back
on the flower where I lay

From then on the boy greeted me
each new Spring with his gentle touch
But as the boy grew older new emotions
began to stir in him so much
And as he became a young man he realized new feelings
and that there was something amiss
For you see this young man never met a young lady
with whom he could share a sweet kiss

His parents left the farm and took him to the city
where he could make friends his own age
The next Spring he was gone and I was so sad
but I did not fall into a rage

He missed his buzzing friends on the farm
where he left them with his old toys
He went to live in the city
where surely he would find new joys

There he became like me a bumble bee buzzing
in a garden among the new buds of Spring
He searched for the most precious new bud in the garden
hoping to find just one thing

And when he found that one perfect new bud
he knew exactly what to say …

You are the most beautiful new bud of Spring
that this bumble bee has seen today
And as I watch you unfurl your fresh new blossom
there is nothing I will miss
If you will only allow me to alight on your petals
and share with you your first kiss