Mission

Honey Bee Suite is dedicated to honey bees, beekeeping, wild bees, other pollinators, and pollination ecology. It is designed to be informative and fun, but also to remind readers that pollinators throughout the world are endangered. Although they may seem small and insignificant, pollinators are vital to anyone who eats.

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Plants that Attract Pollinators

Popular Garden Plants:

Basil (Ocimum)
Bee balm (Monardia)
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)
Borage (Borago)
Caltrop (Kallstroemia)
Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster)
English Lavendar (Lavandula)
Escallonia (Escallonia)
Globe thistle (Echinops)
Hyssop (Hyssopus)
Licorice Mint (Agastache)
Marjoram (Origanum)
Mexican sunflower (Tithonia)
Milkweed (Asclepias)
Rocky Mountain Bee Plant (Cleome)
Rosemary (Rosmarinus)
Russian Sage (Perovskia)
Sage (Salvia)
Wallflower (Erysimum)
Wild lilac (Ceanothus)
Zinnia (Zinnia)

Northwest Native Plants:

Aster (Aster)
California poppy (Eschscholzia)
Currant (Ribes)
Elder (Sambucus)
Fireweed (Epilobium)
Goldenrod (Solidago)
Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium)
Larkspur (Delphinium)
Lupine (Lupinus)
Madrone (Arbutus)
Mint (Mentha)
Oregon grape (Berberis)
Penstemon (Penstemon)
Rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus)
Rhododendron (Rhododendron)
Saskatoon (Amalanchier)
Scorpion-weed (Phacelia)
Snowberry (Symphoricarpos)
Stonecrop (Sedum)
Sunflower (Helianthus)
Wild buckwheat (Eriogonum)
Willow (Salix)
Yarrow (Achillea)

News clip about neonicotinoids and honey bees

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Rachel Carson Forum: opening remarks

  Last night, I was honored to facilitate the 22nd Annual Rachel Carson Forum held at The Evergreen State College and hosted by the Masters of Environmental Science Association, MESA. The panel discussion was on the “Social, Political, and Ecological Implications of Pesticide Use in our Society Today.” Below are my opening remarks.

As a [...]

Pesticide residues in brood comb

Pesticide residues are known to appear frequently in wax combs. Since most pesticides are either lipophilic or dissolved in oil-based carriers, it is no surprise that we find them residing in beeswax. These chemicals can be brought into the hive by the bees themselves in the form or contaminated pollen and nectar, or they [...]

The feds forced me to use insecticide

. . . and ticked me off no end. Although I spend vast amounts of time and energy preaching the dangers of indiscriminate pesticide use, last week the FHA forced me to hire an exterminator and spray for non-existent anobiid beetles. I argued and pleaded, but no amount of logic had any effect on [...]

Science and HoneyBeeSuite

In the past couple of years I’ve spoken to a number of groups about bees, bee habitat, and pesticides. But on Thursday night I was once again invited to present my master’s thesis to a batch of graduate students in the Master of Environmental Studies program at The Evergreen State College.

These students are [...]

Pesticide residue in urban honey: yes or no?

The best way to make yourself into a target these days, is to say something negative about urban beekeeping. You may as well paint a bull’s eye on your beesuit. And those yellowjackets I’ve been complaining about? They can’t hold a candle to an angry urban beekeeper. Hear that? Those are arrows zinging by [...]

The truth about organic honey

Today I’m giving you an assignment. I want you to read a blog post at Scientific American’s Compound Eye by Alex Wild. This article, more succinct than I could ever write, is a concise summary of why there is no such thing as organic honey.

A honey producer or distributor can put just about [...]

Are we listening to the honey bee's message?

I’m frequently asked if I support a ban on all pesticides. The truth is, my answer is no. I’m not against all pesticides. What’s more, I am actually for some of them.

For example, I’m not against most antibiotics used in medicine. Penicillin, for example, has saved my hide more than once, for which [...]

What is entombed pollen?

Entombed pollen is pollen that is stored in a honey bee hive and encapsulated under a layer of propolis.

The phenomenon was first described in a paper by Dennis vanEngelsdorp et al and published in the Journal of Invertebrate Pathology (2009). In that paper, the authors described cells of stored pollen that were covered [...]

Christmas swarm saved by caring homeowner

About two days before Christmas I got an e-mail from an Arizona homeowner about a swarm of bees that were hanging from the eaves of her house. She said the weather had been unusually warm, but just as it started to change for the worse, the swarm of bees arrived. She didn’t want them [...]