The room was fluttering with bee conservationists. The seats were occupied by men and women from all over the Pacific Northwest who had agreed to donate considerable sums of personal time and money to tramp across the tristate area and survey bumble bees. Butterfly nets, catch jars, and t-shirts were stacked next to doughnuts, coffee, […] Read more
This morning I hiked into the Capitol Forest to photograph bees. I found a few, but nothing I didn’t expect. Several species of Bombus and one species of Melissodes frolicked in the bull thistles; a few honey bees sampled the cat’s-ear. I was heading home along an old logging road that is steep and graveled—marbles […] Read more
I want to address this issue because a lot of non-beekeepers land on this site looking for ways to kill bees without using pesticides. This is good news because it shows that people are becoming more aware of the dangers of pesticides to our environment, children, and pets. Conversely, it’s bad news because it shows […] Read more
It’s my turn to ask questions, and I have a few of them lined up. This first one just came from a reader in Texas (Mike) and I don’t have an answer for him. Because Texas is having such a terrible drought, the wild bees are finding little to eat–a situation that doesn’t bode well […] Read more
Scientists in Turkey and Iran recently discovered a tiny bee that uses flower petals to build nest capsules. The bee, Osmia avoseta, uses only the petals of Onobrychis viciifolia for this important work. I somehow missed this story, which was run by NPR on May 6, 2010. But it’s not too late to follow the […] Read more
While studying pesticides in pollen, I was always curious about the potential for pollen to carry disease organisms as well. Indeed, a new study that appeared in the December 22 PLoS ONE confirmed my worst fears—that pollen may be a major route of viral infection from managed honey bees to wild native bees. The authors […] Read more