Native Bees

Native Bee

Bombus mixtus pollinating black raspberry

Mace Vaughan/Xerces Society

http://modernfarmer.com/2014/04/bees/

Wow, what an extremely interesting article.  As every year we struggle with keeping our precious little honey bees alive, it just makes me wonder if we may just be going about this the wrong way.

Maybe we're coddling this little prima donna European bee, just because somewhere in recent years it became in vogue.  The more people that took an interest in them, the more the cost of the bees and the cost of supplies for raising them went up.  I'm thinking currently at least 5 times more than when we first took an interest 10 or 12 years ago.

Somehow we as Americans are always bringing in more non natives.  Wonder if that has to do with how much we have to struggle to control pests and disease in our plants and animals and people.  And some may say "Duh!", sorry maybe I'm just catching up.  And in the garden I have my European cider apple trees going too, maybe I need to see what kind of native apples are available...



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