How sweet it is!

It's World Bee Day!

Today bees, pollinators, and many other insects are declining in abundance. This day provides an opportunity for all of us – whether we work for governments, organizations or civil society or are concerned citizens – to promote actions that will protect and enhance pollinators and their habitats, improve their abundance and diversity, and support the sustainable development of beekeeping. 

To bee, or not to bee: that is the question. Paraphrasing Hamlet, the slings and arrows of pesticides, insecticides, mites and land use changes have caused honeybee and other pollinator populations to suffer and encounter a thousand shocks. Minnesota is claimed to be home to at least 455 species of bees. That's many more than the 146 listed in the Minnesota Bee Atlas. Just last year, the rusty patched bumblebee beecame Minnesota's state bee. The University of Minnesota's Bee Lab has a growing abundance of information about our native bees. Bee sure to  check the Learn More page.

bee on yellow flower, not dandelion

Photo by J. Harrington

We saw a few bees, or what we think were bees, on the dandelions today. Still no sign of bees on the  pear tree flowers. There's lots of bushes in bloom, but, except for the dandelions, few flowers have bloomed to provide nectar or pollen. This  afternoon I'll take a look at the bee house we hung last Summer and see if any of the tubes appear to be occupied. Haven't yet seen any monarch butterflies either. None have been reported much North of Milwaukee.

Bees Were Better

By Naomi Shihab Nye

In college, people were always breaking up.

We broke up in parking lots,

beside fountains.

Two people broke up

across a table from me

at the library.

I could not sit at that table again

though I did not know them.

I studied bees, who were able

to convey messages through dancing

and could find their ways

home to their hives

even if someone put up a blockade of sheets

and boards and wire.

Bees had radar in their wings and brains

that humans could barely understand.

I wrote a paper proclaiming

their brilliance and superiority

and revised it at a small café

featuring wooden hive-shaped honey-dippers

in silver honeypots

at every table.

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