bee houses

I have seen bat houses, and butterfly houses, but I am not sure what bee houses are, but I am sure I could look it up. I do not use chemicals in my yard and garden, and the wildlife of all kinds love me. Even the small bunnies. I have blooming flowers, and water in bird baths, and I let the clover grow and bloom in my yard. I have everything from small insects up to coyotes come through my yard. I fully expect to see a deer one day. Possums, raccoons, squirrels and foxes have visited me here.

My garden was flooded out and I've yet to replant. I spent about $100 to put it in the first time and may not be able to do so again. Honey bees are alive and doing well in my area. We have a wild hive in the woods next to our property. They swarmed the fruit trees and dogwoods when they bloomed this spring and I could hear them buzzing away when I went to my car. What I plan on doing is the same as I've always done, not use pesticides and teach my grandchildren to not pick the pretty flowers or step on bugs just for fun.

I always buy our fruit and veggies from the fruit stand. We have alot of them here. Where I live we can't plant anything. Sad. We have a neighborhood garden over across from us and we go help out and then bring home some cucumbers or tomatoes or something. It is about all we get to do around here.

For the fourth time I am trying to respond to your discussion. If it goes off to computer heaven then I have the option of giving it a miss or slitting my throat. Years ago, we hired bee hives as we had put in 20 acres of cucumber (which by the way is pronounced kookoomber out here. used to walk to the fields in the evenings after school to help smooth out the earth in front of the growing cucumber. If it met up with a stone then it would grow bent - not straight and the price would drop. Actually, we did not earn any money as the government of the day (in their wisdom) organized for us to ship to the USA without the distribuor having any money in escrow in this country. We lost approximately 84 thousand US$ and as a rsult had to sell 100 acres to clear debt. What memories! So being an 'expert' and I have one question.as the Queen and the drones mostly stay inside unless they swarm, and there are the sentry bees on duty at the entrance etc. I was thinking that it is only the worker bees who are exposed to the vices and reality of the wicked outside world. Therefore, when they go home at night do they beehive themselves?

Yes, this is a sad fact that the world's bees are dying. If this trend continues it will mean the end of the world as we know it as our food supply and oxygen supply would eventually die out. Our entire existence relies on bees. GM crops, pesticides and the creation of concrete jungles have all played a part in this. The USA is is serious trouble in this regard and they have been importing Australian Honey bees to do the job, but now we are experiencing hive collapses here as well and it is only a matter of time before we face the same wide scale problem. I am planting bee attracting flowering plants to attract them to my veggie garden and I would like to start a small hive. Most people on acreages should have them I feel. But they do take a bit of work and knowledge to look after them properly.

I've looked into getting some orchard mason bee houses. There isn't really a good place in my yard to put a honeybee hive where it won't get disturbed. Plus, as I'm mostly vegan, I avoid honey and wax products. From what I've read, the orchard mason bees aren't very aggressive and rarely sting. I wrote a piece a couple of years ago about bees and other critters and chemical yardcare- called "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" on OpEdNews. Overuse of garden chemicals decimates everything in your yard... toxic junk. I've read a lot of articles claiming that studies have shown that Monsanto GM corn is to blame for bee die-offs...the pesticide in the plants that makes them resistant to pests is also in the pollen, making them toxic to bees as well. Ugly stuff.

Maybe next year.... Seriously, this year I kind of expect to be moving.

I've just been on a murdering spree, killing lots of mosquitoe larvae that for some stupid reason thought they could live in the water through of my horse. Mind you, they wouldn't have survived being drunk anyway, so I suppose I could say that it was a mercy killing ... However, I will do my best not to cut the grass around our summer/winter house (hut? cabin? little house in the big woods?) so that all the bumblebees can have a feast in the flowers. I'm pretty sure I will succeed in making my father not cut the grass too, not so sure about his girlfriend. She wants it to look decent and proper, which is very boring as taking pictures of a green, flat lawn is a bit monochrome and flat. I will also take pictures of bees, I'm sure they like having their picture taken. And make sure that the big thistles behind the stable aren't taken down before they've bloomed so that the bees have something to eat. I think it's mainly bumblebees here though, unless the bees are hiding. Never seen a lot of them but there's bumblebees everywhere. I like them, they're so bumbly. When I was in Scotland before Christmas I bought RSPCA pins as Christmas presents to save animals. And my friend bought lip balm that saved pugs. And for Easter we helped a bluish bug take off.

Yea, I do plan to help...help stink bugs die.

I don't think many people realize that bees are in trouble. I guess the public need to be make more aware of this problem. The consequences of this would be diasterous to the ecology of our planet. So much focus is on global warming and nuclear power today on the news but not so when it is about bees. Sadly, it may be too late when they made the headlines. We need to bring more attention of the public to this matter. Like so many cultivated products in our society today, people have been breeding bees for centuries now, honey bees become genetically similar all over the world and they are more prone to be wiped out by a single decease or virus. Having more varieties of wild bees is important. Putting up bee houses for wild bees is good and keeping their habitat intact is also important.