Honey Bees pollinate 33% of what we eat, let's save them ... this is one way

 Let's Save the Bees how about we start today.

Native Americans called the honey bee "White Man's Fly"
Help save the bees. 

  30% of everything we eat is pollinated by bees, when we think of bee pollination we generally think of the notorious Honey Bee. Busy as a bee, industrious almost to a fault and maker of Honey, a truly amazing insect. Many of us have heard for the past few years of the decimation of the Bee population in the world, it has been narrowed down to several causes (there are many) one is a tiny mite called the "varroa mite". Two others are the Israeli Acute Paralysis virus and the gut parasite Nosema   suspected causes as well. (What's killing the bees, read a fairly long paper here.)
  Many people don't realize there were no honeybees in North America until they were imported from Europe with the first settlers.  Called the "White man's fly" by Native Americans, they had never seen a honey bee, they went extinct here 14 million years ago. (Actually earth worms share this distinction with the bees) Now they are so important to our food production it would be a disaster if they (and other pollinators) were to become extinct. 20,000 species of bee inhabit our world, our little honey bee is just one.There are some things we can do to save the bees.
  So should we plan to save all of the bees in the garden? Well we probably should but 20,000 fills up an area pretty fast, I recommend we save what is called "Solitary" bees. Most bees are solitary as a matter of fact, and we just may be try to save another species as well. Here's one native species we can help to survive:

Mason Bee entering a reed, bamboo, cat tails or tules cut
about 8" long work great, they will plug the far end with mud
hence the name "Mason Bee".

 A good paper on solitary bees may be read here.
Osmia Lignaria, don't you just love the names that we use? In normal language they are "Orchard Mason Bees". They are about 13 mm long, males are a iridescent black/blue color. There is a serious lack of nesting spots for Mason Bees, due to man's constant cleanup efforts, Mason Bees live in wood. They occupy woodpecker holes, cracks, rotted wood but they do not drill their own holes. We can build nesting boxes for them, or use our wood fences. I have drilled a bunch of holes in my fence (it's wood) just for the bees. The holes for this bee (males) should be 3-1/2" deep, be careful not to penetrate all the way through. Space the 5/16" diameter holes about 3/4" apart, a 4"X6"X6" piece of wood will have 12 rows across and 4 rows down equaling 48 holes. The females need a deeper hole, drill into the end of the 4x4 to a depth of 4-6" deep, there should be 16 holes. Sticking straws in the holes will make cleaning them out easier, then place the box facing Southeast, Mason bees like the morning sun. Keep the habitat away from plants that have been treated with pest or weed killer. She will lay her eggs in the deepest part of the hole, then she blocks the cell with mud, she will lay another egg place another slug of mud and so on. She repeats this for the entire length of the hole, the cell is made up of mud-pollen-egg-mud-pollen-egg until the chamber is filled. The eggs hatch after 1-3 weeks, the female lives as an adult for 6 weeks, she dies right after the eggs are laid. Good grief the female side of each equation is definitely the glue that keeps this world together, this is just more proof.
  After you have built your bee habitat you will probably see other species as well, don't be concerned, most bees co-habitat well. One native bee you may see is leaf cutter bees, you will know them due to lining their nest with leaves.
   We can plant different flowers, herbs and vegetables to attract the bees. Sunflowers are my favorite I purchase seeds that produce the tallest largest diameter flower, squash bees are attracted to yellow flowers, beans, peppers and lilac attract bees as well. I planted a Rosemary plant (huge bush now), great in chicken recipes and an absolute signal tower for bee attraction, that Rosemary is covered with bees this time of year. (Spring). Do not use GMO or Hybrid seeds, they are designed to not reproduce, purchase organic only. Water will also help save the bees, a shallow pan or bird bath filled with water, then place rocks and pebbles until the water barely covers them, the bees will bee able to use the rocks to get water. Read a paper on bee habitat click here.

Plant flowers, herbs and vegetables, the bees will come. This
will help save the bees. 

   One other way to provide habitat to save the bees is to contact a bee keeper, if you have room and they are in need of a place for their boxes, you may just become a landlord of bee hives. You may just have met a bee keeping mentor, most of them are happy to share their knowledge and encourage raising honey bees.
   Together we can save the bees, I started with saving the Honey bees, it morphed into providing habitat for Mason and Leaf cutter bees. Drill some holes, plant some sunflowers and set up a watering tray, if you are into self reliance like I am, it may seem like a small thing, but it is a really cool thing to do. Thanks for reading, leave a comment, suggestion or a story, we can save the bees.

jimandkate   EmergencyKitsPlus.com