Counting Bees, Why It’s Important To Us All

In a world where an urban population is growing out of touch with how things grow, finding ways to connect people with real life is important.

An apple tree blooms. Without a pollinator, a bloom withers and falls to the ground, no fruit is the result. With pollen in just the right spot, an apple begins to form. (The reason that those parent-to-child talks about life are called the “birds and the bees?” Well, just think about it.)

Many people are terrified of bees; some call hornets and wasps “bees” and have no knowledge of just how important honeybees are to food production and life.

So here’s why you should consider counting bees this summer. And how the observations you make and report to a special project that is growing every day can prove vital to science.

Many studies have been done on agricultural bee populations and in recent times the commercial beekeepers have experienced colony collapse. What scientists had not studied on a large scale was how the wild bees were doing and what effect that has on pollination of garden plants, crops and wild plants.

In 2008, The Great American Sunflower Project began as a way to gather information about urban, suburban and rural bee populations.

“We wanted to enlist people all over the U.S. and Canada to observe their bees and be citizen scientists,” according Gretchen Lebuhn, a San Francisco State University biologist, who began this project to help researchers better understand what is impacting bee populations. directors of the project. “We asked them to plant sunflowers in their gardens so we could standardize study of bee activity and provide more resources for bees. Sunflowers are relatively easy to grow and are wildly attactive to bees. Since 2008, we have expanded the list of plants studied to include bee balm, cosmos, rosemary, tickseed, and purple coneflower.

To participate takes signing up online to report observations, getting the annual “Lemon Queen” sunflower seeds at a local store or through a seed seller (sources listed online). Ask at your local garden center (consider our advertisers and supporters listed on this page or under our business directory for some great people), a wonderful place to find people passionate about growing things. Consult a member of NOFA CT (Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut) to find ways to grow things in concert with the natural world and skip the pesticides and chemicals. If they kill insects by acting on their receptors, what are they doing to your children’s developing neurons?

Enter bee counts online or send in paper forms. The necessary steps include signing up and planting a sunflower. Describing the garden and how long it takes for five bees to visit the sunflower. Sending in the resulting information.

Everyone is welcome to participate. For details see Great American Sunflower Project, linked here.

The Honey Bee

by Paul Rance

We bow down to you,
Busy, pretty bee -
If you died out,
So soon would we!