TheGardenLady received this question from Joy:
Are you aware of the honeybee crisis and do you think that it will have an
effect on gardening and domestic plants?
The Garden Lady has been hearing about the bee crisis for a number of years. The Garden Lady has noticed fewer and fewer bees on her property even though she never uses pesticides nor herbicides; both can harm beneficial insects like honey bees. Alas, my policy of not putting toxic poisons on the ground is a rareity. Most people prefer lawns without “weeds” like clover. Clover to TheGardenLady is welcome in her lawn. Clover is a honeybee attractant. The GardenLady also tries to plant flowering plants that will attract pollinators. The oregano and mint area of my garden is one spot that is filled with nectar sipping insects that are pollinators.
First there was talk about certain mites attacking the bees and now one hears about a strange disorder called CCD- colony collapse disorder. Not being a bee keeper, the Garden Lady had talked to a friend who keeps bees. At the time, the beekeeper friend said that CCD was mostly in areas where bee keepers moved their colonies from farm to farm. From The Garden Lady’s reading, this is a major problem on the West Coast, on farms like Almond farms where the trees have to have lots of bees for pollination.
CCD is of major concern and the scientists do not know the cause. There are a lot of good websites talking about the problem. Here is a specially good site with numerous articles and a map of the states most affected. Â
There are a few states not yet hit hard. For an up-to-date report on Colony Collapse Disorder check out the the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium Web site.