Pollinators Need Our Help
For the common honey bee (Apis mellifera), a species that thrived for millions of years, the last decade has brought an alarming decline in numbers, a syndrome known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Since 1990, over 25% of the managed honey bee population in the USA has disappeared*. Manitoba lost 46% of its honey bee colonies in 2012 and Nova Scotia has seen declines of about 18% in the last two years. Canada is the 12th largest producer of honey in the world, with a crop worth about two billion dollars. Any decline is a significant loss to the economy.
Among the solutions proposed is the planting of more native species (occasionally known as weeds) that provide the appropriate type of pollen and nectar necessary for the bees to thrive, which would result in more bees being available to pollinate our crops. Marla Spivak, professor of entomology at the University of Minnesota, in a recent TED talk [YouTube, September 2013] explained that bees get their protein from pollen and their food carbohydrates from nectar. Unless there is a diverse source of this food, from various types of flowers, continuing throughout the growing season, bees will lack sufficient nourishment to sustain their population.
Although scientists around the globe are acutely aware of the declining bee population, more information needs to be circulated to the general public. One enterprising project designed to educate and encourage support for urban beekeeping is the B-Shack, designed, fabricated and assembled by a team of students in the School of Architecture at McGill University. To read more about it, check it out at http://farmhouse.farmmresearch.com/bshack

Wild bee populations, including bumblebees, also play a role in pollination and they can benefit from flowering native plants grown along roadsides, farmers’ fields and even city gardens. Cover crops like white clover and alfalfa are also important components in producing healthy bee populations. Honey bees have a highly evolved social organization, in which individual members of the colony perform specific tasks, yet all work together as part of a complex society. Dr Spivak suggests in her talk that if, like honey bees, we each make individual efforts as part of a collective body, we will produce results.
* Gabriella Chavarna, Pollinator Conservation, Renewable Resource Journal, Winter 1999-2000; Among many other sites to check: pollinationcanada.ca; canadahoneycouncil.ca; Geekquinox blog; honeybees.ca; honeylandcanada.com/eng/e