|
Author
|
Topic: bees endangered in US
|
artlovesdawn
Knowflake Posts: 1177
From:
Registered: Jul 2005
|
posted March 14, 2007 12:11 AM
 
..IP: Logged |
Randall
Webmaster Posts: 25125
From: Columbus, GA USA
Registered: Nov 2000
|
posted March 15, 2007 02:33 PM
 ------------------
"There is no use trying," said Alice; "one can't believe impossible things." "I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Lewis Carroll IP: Logged |
Nephthys
Moderator Posts: 3770
From: California
Registered: Oct 2001
|
posted March 15, 2007 09:34 PM
Could also have to do with global warming/climate changes which influence flowering plants, etc. Bees are not aggressive, because they die after 1 sting. They love pollen and nectar from flowers, of which they make honey. As they fly from flower to flower they pollinate flowers and plants. Bees are our chief pollinators, so they are very important to humans! They also love water! I am always rescuing them from the pool! IP: Logged |
artlovesdawn
Knowflake Posts: 1177
From:
Registered: Jul 2005
|
posted March 15, 2007 11:06 PM
..IP: Logged |
Eleanore
Moderator Posts: 2485
From: Japan
Registered: Aug 2003
|
posted March 16, 2007 07:13 AM
It's so funny that you made this post because about a week ago I was thinking about bees. It was in the shower actually, as I was looking at some Burt's Bees products and wondering if they were organic. Anyway ...I would think pesticides and such would definitely be a part of the problem with bees dying off. But I was also wondering about what they've been feeding bees that are not wild anymore. Sugar? High fructose corn syrup? Generic "pollen"? How can that possibly be good for bees?  It's just not the same as their natural diet. That's like people refusing to eat food and trying to live off vitamins and synthetic supplements. Anyway, I think that what we eat directly affects our bodies and over time can even alter our bodily processes. With poor nutrition, over time weaker generations will be produced. So what if we have all these weakling bees trying to survive against pesticides and the sky knows what else that even ideally healthy bees would have trouble surviving against? Just my thoughts. I love bees.  Back in my little garden in NC I would be so thrilled to see the bees buzzing about. Along with the hummingbirds. Aren't people also feeding hummingbirds sugar nowadays with those little feeder things? <head shaking> IP: Logged |
artlovesdawn
Knowflake Posts: 1177
From:
Registered: Jul 2005
|
posted March 16, 2007 12:07 PM
,,IP: Logged |
thedividedsky
Knowflake Posts: 344
From: utah
Registered: Aug 2006
|
posted March 16, 2007 05:14 PM
serves those bees right!! Always buzzin and stingin......
heheheheheheheheh IP: Logged |
goatgirl
Knowflake Posts: 940
From: Anywhere
Registered: Jul 2002
|
posted April 18, 2007 04:23 PM
quote:
High fructose corn syrup
This is what they feed bees now. I would imagine that has a great deal to do with why they are unable to fend. Pesticides I think are another BIG factor. I mean if it kills insects...DUH! GMO crops would be another factor. I wonder if we'll get it before we go extinct too. Help! ------------------
After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." - Aldous Huxley IP: Logged |
naiad
Knowflake Posts: 1645
From:
Registered: Sep 2006
|
posted May 05, 2007 04:59 AM
Rudolf Steiner -- Biodynamics -- Bees
BeesBook Description
In 1923 Rudolf Steiner predicted the dire state of the honeybee today. He said that, within fifty to eighty years, we would see the consequences of mechanizing the forces that had previously operated organically in the beehive. Such practices include breeding queen bees artificially.
The fact that over sixty percent of the American honeybee population has died during the past ten years, and that this trend is continuing around the world, should make us aware of the importance of the issues discussed in these lectures. Steiner began this series of lectures on bees in response to a question from an audience of workers at the Goetheanum. From physical depictions of the daily activities of bees to the most elevated esoteric insights, these lectures describe the unconscious wisdom of the beehive and its connection to our experience of health, culture, and the cosmos. Bees is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the true nature of the honeybee, as well as those who wish to heal the contemporary crisis of the beehive. Bees includes an essay by David Adams From Queen Bee to Social Sculpture: The Artistic Alchemy of Joseph Beuys. The art and social philosophy of Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) is among the most influential of the twentieth century. He was strongly influenced by Rudolf Steiner's lectures on bees. The elemental imagery and its relationship to human society played an important role in Beuys's sculptures, drawings, installations, and performance art. Adams' essay on Beuys adds a whole new dimension to these lectures, generally considered to be directed more specifically to biodynamic methods and beekeeping. amazon.com
IP: Logged |
Lake Dance
Knowflake Posts: 218
From:
Registered: May 2007
|
posted May 11, 2007 04:49 AM
Yeah, it's very alarming news.Hoping for the better and doing the best we can for the future  Lake IP: Logged |
Randall
Webmaster Posts: 25125
From: Columbus, GA USA
Registered: Nov 2000
|
posted May 18, 2007 08:58 PM
 ------------------
"There is no use trying," said Alice; "one can't believe impossible things." "I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Lewis Carroll IP: Logged |
Eleanore
Moderator Posts: 2485
From: Japan
Registered: Aug 2003
|
posted August 05, 2007 09:34 AM
Plea to gardeners: keep a little patch unclipped to help save bumblebeesNeglected corners and undisturbed areas crucial to survival of pollinator http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/jul/23/sciencenews.homesandgardens Ian Sample, science correspondent The Guardian Monday July 23 2007
Bumblebee 
The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Wednesday July 25 2007
We said below that cases of entire bee colonies dying out suddenly had been reported in the UK. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would like to make clear that fears that colony collapse disorder had struck in the UK have so far proved to be unfounded. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let the neighbours mutter in dismay. Unruly, overgrown gardens have been highlighted as a vital refuge for the nation's dwindling bumblebee population, in a countrywide survey by conservationists.
Patches of garden that are left to run wild have been ranked as one of the richest for nesting bumblebees, offering better shelter and food resources than farmland and wooded areas, the report finds. More than 700 volunteers took part in the National Bumblebee Nest Survey, with each scouring a garden and at least one other natural habitat to help with the understanding of the insects' favoured nesting sites. Britain has about 25 native species of bumblebee, although three have been declared nationally extinct. Populations of nine other species are so precarious they have, or are due to be, designated special concerns by the government's Biodiversity Action Plan. In total, 15 species have seen serious contractions in their numbers, a drop that has alarmed conservationists. The survey, published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology, found that gardens had among the highest densities of bumblebee nests, with an average of 36 nests per hectare. Farmland fencing was also identified as a rich habitat for the insects, with 37.2 nests per hectare. Other countryside habitats made less suitable nesting grounds, with hedgerows being home to about 30 nests an hectare and woodlands just 11 nests an hectare. Bumblebees build nests above ground or just beneath and line them with moss and leaves. Slightly neglected gardens are particularly good habitats for the bees because of the abundance of nesting options, such as compost heaps and bird boxes, and additionally the rich variety of flowers over the year that many gardeners cultivate. Read the full content…… "These kinds of gardens really provide a refuge for bumblebees, as long as people don't manage them too carefully," said Juliet Osborne, an ecologist at Rothamsted Research, the agricultural research centre based at Harpenden, Hertfordshire. "If you've got different grass areas, flower beds, compost heaps and hedges, there's a vast variety of habitats for bumblebees," she said. Dr Osborne added: "Bumblebees are happier in gardens that are not perfectly tended. If you can leave some of the grass uncut, and a few areas looking slightly untidy, that's what they love. Even if most of your garden is neat and tidy it's a good idea to let some areas stay undisturbed. Behind the garden shed or garage are good places. You should also make sure you've got a variety of plants that flourish throughout the season." Bumblebees are important pollinators of crops and wild plants, but their populations have been in steep decline for the past 50 years. The loss is thought to be linked to the impact of intensive farming on the plants the bees seek out for food. But as well as food, the insects need nesting sites for queens to start new colonies every spring. Analysis of the survey data showed that in springtime queens favoured nesting sites tucked into the straight-running lines of fences that border green spaces. Although gardens account for only 2% of the land in Britain, the high density of fences and borders that mark out adjoining gardens makes these individual plots rich nesting sites for bumblebees. "The gardens seem to be where the bumblebees establish themselves before moving out to the countryside," said Dr Osborne. Changes in farming practice since the second world war have seen the size of fields increase, which has led to fewer hedgerows, making the managed countryside a less attractive prospect for the insects. In the open countryside, bumblebees may have to expend more energy foraging for nectar because wild flowering plants will be seasonal and possibly sparsely distributed. That gardens have been found to play such a critical role has added to scientists' concerns about the trend for paving over lawns. "This is a very serious issue for the bumblebees," Dr Osborne said. In April, a report from the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution concluded that the loss of garden greenery - to patios, decking and parking space - was having a devastating effect on wildlife in Britain. In urban environments, with few trees, shrubs and grass, many creatures find it impossible to find food and shelter, it said. Dr Osborne said the latest study highlighted habitats, such as woodland borders and farmland fences, where conservation efforts should be directed. "Although in the countryside the total area occupied by field margins and hedgerows is relatively small, sympathetic management - as encouraged by environmental stewardship schemes - could improve bumblebee nesting opportunities in farmland." Explainer: Collapsing colonies The rapid decline in bee populations over the past 50 years in the UK is generally blamed on intensive management of farmland, which has led to a loss of hedgerows and flowering plants that are crucial for the survival of the insects. But recently, there has been an increase in reports of entire bee colonies dying out suddenly, a phenomenon called "colony collapse disorder". Such sudden deaths are usually witnessed late in the summer or early spring when older bees die off, leaving the queen and workers unprepared to forage. The US was particularly badly hit, with beekeepers in 24 states reporting such cases. Other incidents followed in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, as well as in Britain. In April, a team of scientists at Landau University in Germany suggested tentatively that radiation from cell phones might be to blame for the collapse of colonies by interferring with the bees' navigation systems. They put phone base units into two honeybee hives and timed how long it took the animals to return after being released 800 metres away. After 45 minutes one of the colonies had still not returned. The lead researcher, Jochen Kuhn, said the study provided only a "hint" at a cause, and did not prove that radiation from the phone units was to blame. IP: Logged |
artlovesdawn
Knowflake Posts: 1177
From:
Registered: Jul 2005
|
posted August 06, 2007 11:54 AM
..IP: Logged |
goatgirl
Knowflake Posts: 940
From: Anywhere
Registered: Jul 2002
|
posted October 17, 2007 04:36 PM
http://www.alternet.org/environment/65289/
What Was Behind the Honey Bee Wipeout?On Alan Wilson's table at the Oakland Farmers' Market, row after row of glass honey jars catch the early morning sun that angles down Ninth Street. Some of the honey gleams a reddish brown, some a paler amber, depending on the particular mix of flower species the bees foraged. All of it was produced by Wilson's colonies, which number a third of what he had last fall, before the infamous bee die-off that afflicted growers around the world. "I'd better get the honey while I can," one customer remarks. The flurry of media attention given this winter's bee losses, now labeled "colony collapse disorder," has updated the world of bees for a heretofore-clueless public. Our image of honeybees is a lot like our bucolic images of farm animals -- and just as far from the brutal truth of today's corporate agriculture. We picture fields of clover, blossoming orchards, the wildflowers beneath the trees, filled with happy bees industriously gathering nectar and pollen to take back to the hive. As the bees gather pollen, they transfer it from plant to plant, thus assuring cross-pollination. Fewer people can picture what happens at the hive, where the bees feed the protein-rich pollen to their developing brood. The adults live on honey they make from collected nectar -- sipped from the throats of flowers into the bees' honey stomachs, disgorged at the hive into the hexagonal wax combs made by the bees, fanned by bee wings to evaporate excess moisture until it reaches the perfect syrupy consistency, and then sealed with a wax cap to keep it clean and ready to sustain the colony over the winter. In order to do all this, bees rely on a diverse range of flowers blooming over a wide stretch of the year. The honeybee (Apis mellifera) is a European native, one of very few bee species in the world to store honey in bulk and live fulltime in large colonies (30,000 to 100,000 individuals). It is the only bee with a long history of intensive management by people. For almost all of this time, and continuing today in many parts of the world, the rosy picture of bee life painted above is largely accurate. But when beekeeping meets industrial agriculture, the result is very different. Colony collapse disorder may have many contributing causes, but it comes down to bees hitting the biological limits of our agricultural system. It's not so much a bee crisis as a pollination crisis. And we may end up calling it agricultural collapse disorder. It's a rare beekeeper in the United States who can survive by selling honey. The trade loophole that has flooded this country with low-cost Chinese honey for the past ten years guaranteed that (fortunately for beekeepers, that hole has just been plugged by new federal tariff regulations). The only income remaining has been in pollination services. Alan Wilson's bees are rented out for almond pollination starting in February. After that they go south to the orange groves, then all the way to North Dakota where they make clover honey. Wilson's Central Valley location near Merced has little to offer bees over the dry summer months except roadside star thistle and the brief flowering of cantaloupes in August. Nearby agricultural chemicals are a concern, especially the defoliant used on cotton before harvest. Just the drift from the defoliant has taken the paint off Wilson's hives. Still, this year he plans to keep his bees closer to home where he can manage them more intensively and try to increase their numbers. Every commercial beekeeper has different arrange-ments, but each involves long-distance trucking and the California almond crop. Almonds are entirely dependent on the seasonal importation of honeybees. Growers can't get crop insurance coverage unless they have at least two bee colonies per acre at almond blossom time; some growers use up to five colonies per acre for heavier yields. Over 800,000 Central Valley acres are planted in almond trees. As beekeeper Randy Oliver says, it is "monoculture at its absolute worst -- they don't allow one species of weed to grow": mile after mile of bare soil and almond trees. No native pollinators can survive on this wasted landscape to ease the honeybees' burden, and nothing lives to sustain bees before or after the almond bloom. Truckloads of bees begin to arrive as early as November from all over the nation -- it takes virtually all of this country's commercially operated pollination colonies to cover California's almonds. While the bees roll down the highways, hive entrances boarded up, or wait in Central Valley bee yards for the trees to bloom, they're fed a mixture of high fructose corn syrup meant to replace nectar, along with soy protein meant to replace pollen. (Some beekeepers, Wilson among them, have switched to beet syrup as a safer though more expensive alternative.) Oliver sums up the patent absurdity: "When bugs from the east coast have to be trucked to California to pollinate an exotic tree because California has no bugs, it's a pretty whacked-out agricultural system." Oliver's 500 bee colonies -- he was lucky, with losses under ten percent -- follow a relatively short migratory truck route that takes them from Central Valley almonds to Sierra foothill wildflowers to Nevada alfalfa. He attributes his success to fewer and shorter moves, reliance on pasture forage for much of the year, and avoidance of artificial feeding. "Some of these guys move their bees a dozen times a year," he says. Popular pollination routes include apples and blueberries, which rely on honeybees for 90 percent of their pollination, peaches (50 percent), and oranges (30 percent). Farmers won't bother planting squash or melons if they can't get beehives in place by bloom time. One-third of all US crops depend on honeybee pollination. It hasn't been this way for long. Even 30 years ago growers could rely on a combination of native pollinating insects and local honeybees for most crops. In 1970, there were 35 beekeepers in Alan Wilson's area; now there are two. As farms grew more and more of fewer and fewer crops, using petrochemical pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, vast tracts of land have gradually approached the reductionist goal of supporting no life at all except the target crop. It's not just the almonds -- every crop is grown this way. That's why it's called industrial agriculture, or factory farming. Bee researchers have been calling bees "the canary in this coal mine," a different version of the birds and the bees. A quote attributed to Albert Einstein has been popping up all over the Internet: "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." Einstein never said it, but the instant ubiquity of the sentiment says everything. Though the media only picked it up this year, bees have actually been in trouble for the past couple of decades. Mites -- parasitic insects small enough to use bees as their hosts -- jumped from other species to honeybees, another example of collateral damage from global transportation. First tracheal mites in the '80s, then varroa mites in the '90s -- even before last winter, the world's honeybee population had declined by half in 30 years. UC Davis apiculturist Eric Mussen points out that before the mites arrived, winter losses of five to ten percent of a beekeeper's colonies were the norm. The mites increased yearly losses to 25 percent by the late '80s, and now we're at 40 percent or higher, with some years better than average and others catastrophic. Randy Oliver says, "If we made a list of collapses of the last 20 years, this winter's would not make the top five." Last year's losses were bad for Alan Wilson, but the last four years together have decimated his colonies by over 90 percent. The only beekeepers doing substantially better are the very small percentage practicing non-chemical mite control coupled with little or no trucking or artificial feeding -- in other words, labor-intensive vigilance combined with lower pollination income. It's not a financially viable option for many fulltime beekeepers. The difference with this winter's losses is not having an identified cause, and therefore no quick (even if temporary) fix. For tracheal mites, beekeepers developed nontoxic preventive treatments -- Alan Wilson successfully doses his bees on a mixture of Crisco, sugar, and peppermint extract. Varroa mites proved trickier, and beekeepers started down the slippery slope of synthetic insecticide use. "Until the mid-'90s nobody dreamed of using chemicals in beehives," Oliver says. Once they did, the race was on, with insecticide-resistant varroa mites evolving neck-in-neck with the newest chemical treatment. European beekeepers, who have had the varroa mite longer, have pretty much given up on chemicals and use an Integrated Pest Management approach. US beekeepers who go this route find it labor- and attention-intensive, and effective within its parameters (not eradication but healthy bees living with a smaller number of mites). According to Oliver, "We're just prolonging our agony as long as we continue to use chemical treatments." Everyone agrees the honeybee buzzed into the 21st century carrying a heavy load of stress. Colonies were weakened by mites, perhaps by chemicals used to kill the mites, and probably by at least some of the 25 different viruses carried by varroa mites. Add in a fungus, nosema, that's tolerated by healthy bees but a problem for already weakened hives. Then there's the stress of long-distance truck travel, longer distances for more bees every year. The small hive beetle, an African native recently found in Florida hives, posed another challenge; aggressive African honeybees attack the beetle, but European bees, bred to be docile, let it overrun the hive. Cell phone interference has been proposed as a threat to bees, based on reports of a German study showing bees unable to find their way home in the presence of high-frequency electromagnetic radiation. This particular theory must be called inconclusive at best, since the study was not designed with enough apicultural knowledge to produce reliable results. No bee taken from the hive for the first time, as was done in the study, would be able to find its way back, since bees navigate primarily by landmarks, not electromagnetic homing sensors. Their first few excursions are short orientation flights, not blind trips in a box to a release point. Of all these factors, many beekeepers judge varroa mites the most consistently debilitating. But there's another weakening influence more obvious and more integral to the larger agricultural dilemma. It's the stressor Mussen calls the most important of all -- bee malnutrition. High-fructose corn syrup and soy protein are not any more nutritious for bees than they are for humans (see Spring 2007), and bees in transit and between pollination jobs often must subsist on nothing but these non-foods. Compounding the problem, we're talking genetically modified corn and soy, every cell of which contains a bacterial insecticide. Are bees not insects? US studies have indicated that Bt corn pollen does not kill healthy bees or brood reared on it, but a German study showed that Bt pollen led to "significantly stronger decline in the number of bees" in hives already weakened by varroa mites. We do know that corn pollen in general is poor bee food, high in fiber and low in protein. The Midwest, up until now the country's best bee forage habitat, this year is being planted much more aggressively to GM corn as a source for ethanol -- aggressive meaning planting marginal areas and edges usually left to the asters and goldenrods that are high-quality pollen sources in late summer when bees need to raise the generation that will overwinter. Even when bees are out foraging for real nectar and non-GMO pollen, for much of the year they are likely to be ingesting a monocultured diet due to their use as pollinators for industrial-scale agriculture -- nothing but almond, then nothing but apple, then only watermelon. They're exposed to pesticides used on their forage crops as well. Oh -- and one more influence to factor into the equation -- very hot weather can damage the protein content of pollen, decreasing its food value for bees. Global warming is kicking our butts from more directions than we can comprehend. Given these conditions, last winter's losses can hardly be considered a surprise. Neither can the failure of bee researchers to come up with one specific cause, much less a magic bullet cure. Still, the kind of thinking that got us this far continues. According to Mussen, "the only hope is the USDA Tucson lab" which is working on a liquid feed that bees can eat all year. Randy Oliver calls this the "holy grail" of bee research. The USDA's proprietary formula, if they come up with one that works, will be patented and licensed to a commercial producer, and the whole agricultural system may manage to lurch along for a few more years, complete with pollinators hauled from Florida to California in time for the almond bloom. How did all those almonds get pollinated this year, on the heels of beekeepers' discoveries that half (in some cases up to 90 percent) of their colonies had suddenly gone missing? It wouldn't have happened without a change in regulations that allowed bees to be imported from Australia. Bee businesses Down Under went into boom mode, sending 100,000 packages of bees to the States. A package is a starter kit of about 10,000 worker bees and a queen, enclosed in a small screened box with a sugar water feeder. The receiving beekeeper shakes the package into a waiting hive, and given proper nectar and pollen resources, within a month a new generation of bees will be expanding the colony. The Australian influx may be short-lived, as a colony of Indian bees (Apis cerana) was recently discovered living aboard a yacht off Australia. The Indian bee is host to yet another mite that could wreak havoc if it spreads to the European honeybee. Another factor in almond pollination this year was the rental price for a bee colony, which averaged $150, nearly twice what it was last year. This was the first year in which the income beekeepers realized from almond pollination surpassed the income received for the entire US honey crop. There's talk of opening the Canadian border for next year's almond season. To paraphrase Randy Oliver, we're prolonging our agony by continuing with this profoundly unworkable agricultural system. Suddenly terms like "organic" and "biodiversity" shift from boutique buzzwords to elements of survival. This country has 4,500 species of native insects that are potential pollinators. On the East Coast, where farms are much smaller, more diverse, and broken up by uncultivated land, native insects account for up to 90 percent of crop pollination. Studies done on Costa Rican coffee crops have shown that yields are 20 percent greater within one kilometer of forest remnants. Canadian canola farmers show increased yields by leaving 30 percent of their cropland wild. It's all about pollination. Fortunately for us, insects are quick to recolonize formerly dead areas. Hedgerows, windbreaks, wetlands, woodlots -- the particulars of restoration agriculture are easy and already known. It's the big picture that's harder to shift, from the extractive industrial petrochemical model to the biodiverse ecosystem model. Honeybees have upped the ante, giving us all the motivation we need to change -- do we want to continue to eat? ------------------
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good. ~ Bertrand Russell IP: Logged |
artlovesdawn
Knowflake Posts: 1177
From:
Registered: Jul 2005
|
posted October 18, 2007 03:30 AM
..IP: Logged |
yourfriendinspirit
Moderator Posts: 2496
From: California, USA
Registered: Oct 2006
|
posted March 05, 2008 12:56 AM
Wow! Great information everyone Thank you!!! IP: Logged |
maklhouf
Knowflake Posts: 1379
From:
Registered: Nov 2003
|
posted March 06, 2008 07:53 AM
Must have taken ALD ages to delete every single post!------------------
The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner;
Matthew 21:42 IP: Logged |
angel_of_hope
Moderator Posts: 1329
From: Palmer, AK
Registered: Jul 2004
|
posted March 18, 2008 05:55 PM
After this morning's post regarding indoor air pollutants it got me thinking about what I'm gonna do for my garden and landscaping this year. I remembered about a email I received a while back from a lady by the name of Ingrid Naiman in regards to the Bee Population. Within the emails she listed plants that attract bees. Some of the flowers are nurturing to the bees, providing nectars that boost the bees immunity and others that are like power foods for bees. So why not plant some to help these guys survive!?! I'm gonna. (although my backyard isn't exactly what you'd call grass, but mainly consists of clovers. I've already got a jump start to attracting them lil buzzer's.)Plants Bees Like
- All basils, especially Rama tulsi which is which is highly prophyllactic to plant and insect diseases
- All clovers, especially red, white, and crimson
- All mints, especially licorice mint
- All sages, especially garden sage
- Alfalfa, fenugreek, bell beans and flax
- True comfrey, Symphytum officinalis
- Mallows, especially hollyhock
- Mullein, especially Greek mullein
- Scotch broom
- Oregon grape
- Rue, thyme, hyssop, rosemary, oregano, marjoram
- Yarrow
Source: http://ingridnaiman.com/subscription_lists/bioethika_emails/bees.html I'm sure if you ran a google search you'd find many more possibilities of things to plant. This was a short list given by Ingird that I thought I'd pass along. ------------------
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known" ~ Carl Sagan Cap Sun, Cancer Moon, Cap ASC IP: Logged |
Randall
Webmaster Posts: 25125
From: Columbus, GA USA
Registered: Nov 2000
|
posted March 19, 2008 11:49 AM
Got a couple of bees here doing the work of many. They are busy as a bee! LOL Pollen is all over my car, so they are doing a great job helping these flowers to bloom early. Bravo to the bees!  ------------------
"There is no use trying," said Alice; "one can't believe impossible things." "I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Lewis Carroll IP: Logged | |
Lindaland
UBBFriend: Email This Page to Someone! 
