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Lately (defined as "off and on in the past year or so"), I've been hearing about bee colonies collapsing. I'd not bothered to go do any research or anything, just listening to it when it comes up in conversations at birthday parties and such (yes, I go to the sort of birthday parties in which bee colony collapse can come up.)
So when I came across a hive for mason bees in a catalog, I was vaguely intrigued. I marked it as something to think about buying (it's only $15, and mason bees are supposedly better pollinators and less aggressive than "normal" bees). Today I finally got around to actually looking at it for real, including some of the articles about it. What I found most interesting was this:
"...the average honeybee spends seven days a week collecting nectar and pollen along with its 70,000 hive-mates. To service the nation’s growing demand for food, honeybees work for months on end without a break. As soon as they finish pollinating one crop, their hives are transported to the next crop. From Canada to Florida, California to Maine they are always on the move, frantically pollinating almonds, blueberries, raspberries, cranberries, cucumbers, apples, peaches, pears and more."
I totally did not realize that honeybees were migrant workers, moving (or in this case, being moved) from place to place. Every living being needs a rest cycle, and it sounds like honeybees aren't getting any. No wonder they're collapsing.
So when I came across a hive for mason bees in a catalog, I was vaguely intrigued. I marked it as something to think about buying (it's only $15, and mason bees are supposedly better pollinators and less aggressive than "normal" bees). Today I finally got around to actually looking at it for real, including some of the articles about it. What I found most interesting was this:
"...the average honeybee spends seven days a week collecting nectar and pollen along with its 70,000 hive-mates. To service the nation’s growing demand for food, honeybees work for months on end without a break. As soon as they finish pollinating one crop, their hives are transported to the next crop. From Canada to Florida, California to Maine they are always on the move, frantically pollinating almonds, blueberries, raspberries, cranberries, cucumbers, apples, peaches, pears and more."
I totally did not realize that honeybees were migrant workers, moving (or in this case, being moved) from place to place. Every living being needs a rest cycle, and it sounds like honeybees aren't getting any. No wonder they're collapsing.
