Posts Tagged: Rachael Long

Feeding the Bees

Talk about good news.

Honey bees will definitely benefit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's announcement Tuesday that it will provide nearly $3 million in technical and financial assistance to farmers and ranchers in five Midwestern states (Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin) who plant cover crops and hedgerows.

Three million isn't that much when you look at the big picture--the agricultural picture. As Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said: "Honey bee pollination supports an estimated $15 billion worth of agricultural production, including more than 130 fruits and vegetables that are the foundation of a nutritious diet. The future security of America's food supply depends on healthy honey bees."

Vilsack added that the funding should help "American's beekeepers combat the current, unprecedented loss of honey bee hives each year."

The federal support also means a better habitat for other pollinators, including native bees. This should really boost our declining bumble bee population.

The need for more bee forage in the Midwest is crucial. Many commercial beekeepers in these five states truck their bees to California for the annual almond pollination season. California needs 1.6 million colonies to pollinate its 810,000 acres (two hives per acre) and since California doesn't have that many colonies (it's about 500,000), beekeepers from throughout the United States provide them.

Why these five states? Because 65 percent of the nation's estimated 30,000 commercial beekeepers bring their bees to California for at least part of the year, according to Jason Weller, chief of USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Restoring bee habitat and thus enabling bees to store up for the winter is a "real shot in the arm," he says.

More natural bee forage should mean healthier bees. Currently they're being fed such dietary supplements as high fructose corn syrup.

NRCS has long provided financial support for hedgerows in California's Central Valley. Rachael Long, farm advisor and director of Cooperative Extension in Yolo County, is among those advocating the planting of hedgerows. She and her colleagues wrote about their work in peer-reviewed research, "Hedgerows Enhance Beneficial Insects on Farms in California's Central Valley." published in the October-December 2011 edition of California Agriculture. Their research details the beneficial insects they collected, including lady beetles, assassin bugs, minute pirate bugs, damsel bugs, big-eyed bugs and tachinid flies. "The greatest abundance of beneficial insects was collected on California buckwheat, followed, in decreasing amounts, by coyote brush, elderberry, coffeeberry, toyon and California lilac," they reported.

Meanwhile, it should be interesting to see how much NRCS' push for more cover crops and hedgerows in Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin will help our nation's honey bees and other pollinators.

Honey bee foraging on mustard. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Honey bee foraging on mustard. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Posted on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 at 9:57 PM

Comments: 0

Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

Tags: crop covers (1), hedgerows (1), honey bee plants (1), Rachael Long (2), USDA (1)

Attracting Pollinators to Your Garden

"How to Attract and Maintain Pollinators in Your Garden."

That's the title of a new publication by the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) and what a gem this is. It's not only a gem, but it's free. You can download the publication on this site.

"Nearly all ecosystems on earth depend on pollination of flowering plants for their existence and survival; furthermore, from 70 to 75 percent of the world's flowering plants and over one-third of the world's crop species depend on pollination for reproduction," the authors write. "Take a stroll through your neighborhood or a botanical garden or hike in the hills, and experience the shapes and smells of flowers surrounding you. When most people look at a flower, they notice the shape, smell, composition, or structure of the flower, but few take a moment to consider why the blossom appears and smells as it does."

The publication is the work of a nine-member team: UC Berkeley entomologist Gordon Frankie and lab assistants Marissa Ponder (lead author), Mary Schindler, Sara Leon Guerrero, and Jaime Pawelek; international landscape designer Kate Frey; Rachel Elkins, UC Cooperative Extension pomology advisor, Lake and Mendocino counties; Rollin Coville, photographer, UC Berkeley; and Carolyn Shaffer, lab assistant, UC Cooperative Extension, Lake County. Native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis, helped edit the publication.

The publication asks and answers such questions as:

What Is Pollination?
Who Are the Pollinators?`
Why Should You Care About Pollination?
How Can You Attract Pollinators to Your Garden?

Other topics include:

General Design Recommendations for Pollinator Habitat
Designs to Attract Specific Pollinators
A List of Pollinator Plants That are Successful in Most California Gardens
Nesting Resources for Native Bees

Of bees, the authors write: "Bees are the most important biotic agent for the pollination of agricultural crops, horticultural plants, and wildflowers...approximately 4000 species of bees exist in the United States, with 1600 of those residing in California. About 20,000 species have been recorded worldwide."

And, as they succinctly point out, "Native bee species come in a variety of shapes, colors, sizes, and lifestyles that enable them to pollinate a diversity of plant species." One of our favorites is the metallic green sweat bee (Agapostemon texanus).

Last September we enjoyed a tour of Melissa's Garden, Healdsburg, a bee sanctuary owned by Barbara and Jacques Schlumberger and designed by the incredibly talented Kate Frey. “If a honey bee could design a garden, what would it look like?” That's what the Schlumbergers asked Frey back in November of 2007. Although this is a private garden, the Schlumbergers host workshops for schoolchildren, beekeepers and UC Master Gardeners, among other groups. if you ever get the opportunity to tour the garden, you should. A sculpture of Bernard the Beekeeper graces the entrance.

Melissa's Garden is mentioned in the UC ANR Publication, as is the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis and the UC Berkeley-Oxford Tract Bee Evaluation Garden. Also check out the UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab website.

A sculpture of Bernard the Beekeeper graces the entrance to Melissa's Garden, Healdsburg. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A sculpture of Bernard the Beekeeper graces the entrance to Melissa's Garden, Healdsburg. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A honey bee foraging in Melissa's Garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A honey bee foraging in Melissa's Garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A metallic green sweat bee on a seaside daisy. It is one of some 1600 species of bees in California. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A metallic green sweat bee on a seaside daisy. It is one of some 1600 species of bees in California. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

International landscape designer Kate Frey (left) of Hopland and her childhood friend, Rachael Long, Yolo County farm advisor/county director of the UC Cooperative Extension, Woodland on a visit to the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, UC Davis, in September. Behind them is the mosaic ceramic bee sculpture created by Donna Billick, co-director of the UC Davis Art/Science Fusion Program. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Posted on Friday, December 13, 2013 at 10:13 PM

Comments: 1

Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

Tags: bee garden (1), Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven (1), Kate Frey (1), Melissa''s Garden (1), Pollinators (1), Rachael Long (2)