How to Support Pollinators!

Lets face it, many people want to support our pollinators but are afraid of bees. Here at SweetLocalHoney we understand that sentiment. Our pollinators face many obstacles, from the deadly varroa mite, pesticides, colony collapse, and declining habitat our pollinators are in serious trouble. We would like to arm you with some ideas on how to help our pollinators.

1. Start a pollinator garden. 

Starting a pollinator garden is the perfect step if you do not want to have bees yourself. Even small plots help our pollinators. Personally, I would try to plant something for every season (Spring, summer and fall). A successful pollinator garden would be mostly natives, not cultivars. Some cultivars while pretty lack the abundance of nectar or pollen our bees need. Research what is native in your area to determine what locally is a good option.

Some of my favorite options include

Trees:

Basswood tree (very prolific in terms of honey production)

Crabapples/apple: amazing pollen and nectar source.

Pussy Willow: great early source for bees coming out of a long winter

buckwheat: cover crop (technically non native) produces really dark honey. Some people love buckwheat honey. Buckwheat grows fast 1 month to flower, and produces a decent amount of honey. The honey is some of the most nutritious. Very easy to pull up and remove, reseeds easily. Not cold resistant, will die with first frost.

Clover: no list is complete without mentioning clover. prolific honey producer.

Purple coneflower: mid summer, bees love the combinatison of nectar and pollen

Asters: great mid late source of nectar for bees.

Sunflowers: Bees love this mid to late summer option

Anise hyssop: fragrant purple spikes mid summer. smells like licorice, bees like. produces minty honey

Goldenrod: one of the most important late options for bees heading into winter. Very aromatic. Beekeepers know when goldenrod is blooming. Why? the beehives take on the scent of dirty gym socks. Honey fortunately doesn't taste like gym socks. Not that I've eaten gym socks :) Many people blame goldenrod for seasonal allergies but this is probably not the case as the pollen is too heavy. Ragweed typically blooms at the same time so most likely peoples allergies is to ragweed not goldenrod.

2. Buy Honey from local beekeepers: now this might seem like a cheap plug to get you to buy honey, but beekeeping is not a easy business. Beekeepers can lose 40% of their colonies overwinter, along with summer losses due to varroa, disease, poor queens etc beekeeping is not a very easy cost neutral business model. High startup costs of beehives, mite treatments, extractors, hive tools, pollen patties, sugar for winter feed, it isn't cheap. There is a saying in beekeeping that if you want to make a pile of money in beekeeping, start with two piles of money. So every purchase of honey helps each beekeeper put more resources into their operation. Every purchase here helps us keep our bees healthy and happy and allows us to grow our apiary.

3. Pesticide: now before you stop reading hear me out. Pesticides are using a real issue in our society. The pesticide runoff is causing major issues in our streams and rivers. It impacts our local bee populations as well. The pesticide reside builds up in the beeswax. Beeswax starts off pure white/yellow. After many uses it turns a dark black from the build up of chemicals/dirt/debris. Look up videos of rendering beeswax to see what I mean. Look at the difference between burr comb, wax capping, and the wax taken from a brood frame. Pesticides are sadly not needed in every urban lawn. Dandelions are some of the first flowering sources of nectar and pollen for honey bees. Clover is a beautiful lawn addition, it is fragrant, hardy, and beautiful. I could go on forever, so I will end with this. 1/3 of the food you eat needs to be pollinated. Without bees strawberries, almonds, oranges, apples, cucumbers, melons, grapefruit, coffee, apricots and many more need to be pollinators to reach your table.

4.Mowing your lawn: In my town we instituted a no mow May policy to help pollinators coming out of winter. This helps our bees find good sources of pollen to help feed the new young bees in the hive. Dandelions are a great significant source of pollen for near starving bees coming out of long winters. While I do not suggest letting your lawn go forever unmowed as many cities have ordinances against this but simply reduce your mowing and allow a little longer length.

5. Leave some water out: Bees in the heat of the summer need a lot of water to cool the hives down. Consider leaving a water source with rocks. Bees do not like getting their feet wet for whatever reason.

6. Plant natives. Search for the natives in your area, there are some great websites for native varieties such as https://www.prairiemoon.com