Pollinator Week June 20-26

It’s National - and State of Maine – Pollinator Week. I do hope there are plenty of people doing things to thank and help all our hard-working (although they would just call it foraging) pollinators of which most are bees.  I am not saying that because they are my favorite, but of course they are.  And not just honeybees.  I am a fan of all bees and Maine has a good selection of native ones that I am trying to learn about and follow about with my camera. 

There was an opinion column in the Wall Street Journal today entitled “Blessed are the Beekeepers.” (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303635604576392021851510578.html) I am not patting myself on the back when I say an “Amen” to that. The column highlighted honeybees for the necessity of crop pollination and referenced the problem of Colony Collapse Disorder that has plagued beekeepers from around the world for about 5 years.  The authors, who are agricultural economists, point out that overall there has been no decrease in the amount of pollination and that the price for pollinating services charged by professional beekeepers has not increased due to CCD. 

I got the feeling from reading the article that the authors feel everything is pretty much all right since beekeepers are just ramping up production of bees and queens all the while trying to treat for the diseases and mites and, oh, yes, selecting for the strongest bees.  Situation under control.  Not to worry.  Plenty of bees, now and into the future. 

I am wondering how many beekeepers were interviewed for this article.  Even though I am no professional, I can tell you that keeping bees is not easy.  It is costly to maintain hives and even to “make more bees” because more boxes, frames, comb are needed.  In cold weather, we need to feed them sugar – that adds up when you are buying 10  -20 pounds every few weeks.  Not to mention the stress of worrying about them and whether you are doing the right things for them.  I did have the opportunity to speak with a long-time professional beekeeper in Maine not too long ago.  I think he would say that losing several thousand dollars this past year due to bees dying would definitely be something to worry about.  He lost about one third of his hives, already a financial loss, but then started feeding his surviving hives pollen patties that he had to purchase to build them up.  And then, if hives are lost while they are on a pollinating job, he is not compensated for their loss, which doesn’t seem right at all. 

Another thought – yes – buzzed through my mind after reading the article.  There was no mention of native bees.  Native bees are not only big players, er, workers in crop pollination – and in certain crop fields now growers are trying to encourage the native bees which in some cases are much more efficient than honeybees at the pollen transfer between blossoms – but they also are a key organism in ecosystems.  If it wasn’t for their food-seeking and finding in fields, meadows, along streams, at forest edges, in short anywhere where there are plants growing, the wildlife systems would collapse.  Some flowers have evolved with particular pollinators to such a degree that if that species of bee or wasp or fly or bat – pollinators one and all – were to go extinct, so would that flowering plant.  Honeybee’s tongues are not as long as those of other bees, such as bumblebees for example, and they are unable to reach the pollen so they can’t accomplish pollination for all plants.  Also, honeybees are not native to this country so they are not the prime pollinators of our native plants that are so much more critical to wildlife and that attract and sustain the native bees.  We know comparatively little about the native gals and guys that are solitary nesters, laying eggs in burrows in the ground or in hollow stems of plants.  Personally I think to give the impression that all is doable just with honeybees and not to mention the necessary input of the native bees gives the wrong impression, is not the whole story, and is just a wee bit too anthropocentric. 

National Pollinator Week is the time to thank all pollinators, not just one species that happens to have a huge economic impact.  Sometimes the money part just shouldn’t be the biggest part of the equation.  

Native bumblebee from Pacific Northwest photographed at University of Washington Arboretum