Look Forward to a Bee-utiful Spring

Of course, there are challenges to keeping honeybees; due to parasites like varroa mite or resource shortages within the hive, winter hive loss is not uncommon for the hobbyist beekeeper. It is a sad sign of our changing climate that a lawn full of honeybees zooming over the clover is a rare sight these days. Unfortunately, very few wild honeybee colonies are able to survive without some human intervention. We also can’t forget that honeybees are not the only important pollinators that are in danger. Native bees like carpenter bees, mason bees, bumblebees and leaf cutter bees are crucial to the health of everything from our gardens to our global food supplies. These bees don’t live in large colonies like honeybees do, they are solitary species that don’t lend themselves easily to human-led raising. They are suffering profound population decline due to habitat loss, changes in climate and pesticide use. But there are many ways to help these bees (and any honeybees that your neighbors might be keeping) in your own garden.