Plant a Little Something for Your Honey

Many of you may be aware of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which is a phenomena of unknown origin that has been causing a drastic decline in the number of honey bees reported since 2006. Honey is used as the main sweetener on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet due to it's ability to be easily digested. Honey bees do more for the food chain than just produce honey, they also pollinate many other plants, including those in agriculture.  The USDA says "Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion in added crop value, particularly for specialty crops such as almonds and other nuts, berries, fruits, and vegetables. About one mouthful in three in the diet directly or indirectly benefits from honey bee pollination." While no one knows the cause of CCD, there are many factors that are suspected, such as environmental toxins and vanishing habitat.

    What can we do to help our busy buzzy hard working friends? Now is the time many of us are planting flowers for spring and summer. There are many types of flowers that are better for bees, and local bees are more adapted to local flowers. Adding some local flowers, flowering herbs, and good nectar flowers in your flower bed mix may help them. I couldn't help but notice the local farm stores this year have plenty of local honey, much more than usual. We also had an amazing spring in 2010 with fields bursting of wildflowers due to the extra moisture we received that winter (above photo). Coincidence?

Interesting Links:

Silence of the Bees, a documentary on PBS that you can view here.

Plant a Bee Garden from the Honeybee Conservancy

Urban Bee Gardens

Plants for Native Bees in North America

This post is linked to Fightback Fridays at the Food Renegade.