Tag Archives: honey bees

Bees Susceptible to Neonics Used on Seeds & Seedlings

Bee on sunflower.

A bee visits one of my sunflowers.

If you’re an organic gardener, you don’t use neonics which we know are killing bees and damaging the environment. Or so you think.

But, if you are not buying organic seeds and organic plants, you very well may be poisoning bees right in your own back yard.

Eartheasy shares the latest information on neonics and on how these deadly herbicides and pesticides have slipped into just about every aspect of the farming and gardening world and the result is devastating.

For example, Marta Spivak, an entomologist and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota, suggests that  this could be the foundation for “…the problem of the Varroa destructor mite, which spread widely in the 1990’s. If a bee’s immune system is already compromised by even a low dose of neonics (for example, the concentration found if only the seed of a plant is treated) it can make it all the more difficult for the bee to recover when it encounters the dreaded mite.”

Eartheasy provides more information and more insights on their site. Check it out and find out how we might just be undermining the health and well-being of our bee friends and not even know it!

 

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Beekeeping: Getting Started!

The buzz about beekeeping seems to be getting louder or maybe I am just listening a bit better.Bee-apis

Margaret Roach’s podcast this week is with Olivia Carroll, author of The Bees in Your Backyard.

The April-May issue of National Wildlife offers a special issue focused on gardening for wildlife and offering a feature article on nurturing native bees.

Bee on sunflower.

A bee visits one of my sunflowers.

Jacqueline Freeman, natural beekeeper and author, was one of the stars of the recent Food Summit.

Bees have always been something I always dreamed about having in my backyard and this spring, my dream is coming true!

I am taking part in a research project involving “ruburbian”dwellers – not quite a suburbanite and not quite a rube. And I will be getting a hive placed in my back yard, lessons on beekeeping and a chance to care for them all summer long.

And I am trying to win a hive all for myself via Margaret Roach! Bees are her latest giveaway. And I could really use them.

Cherry, apple, pear, and pluot trees share space with 13 blueberry bushes and about as many thornless blackberry canes in my backyard. This spring, I am adding elderberry bushes to my meadow. And I’m currently growing chamomile, fennel and marshmallow in my basement to sow around the new additions and keep the lemon balm, milkweed and sunflowers that are already growing there, company.

Add my very big, totally organic veggie and herb garden and it’s clear that I could use all the pollinating help I can get!

I just completed the Chester County Beekeeping Association’s Beginning Beekeeping so I could make a plan for getting my own bees. And now, I am doing research, reading and getting really excited about getting bees!

I would LOVE to provide a happy, safe, pesticide free home on my 2.3 acre “farmden.”

If you want to get an up close look at bees, visit the National Geographic feature with photographs by Sam Droege and his team who are populating a database using data collected by backyarders around the country.