Where are the Bees?

[so lucky]

There seems to be an absence of bees in my vegetable and flower gardens this year. When I see a honeybee in the clover in the lawn, I practically do a celebration dance! You members who are more knowledgeable than I, have spoken of this before, but can you talk about this a bit? Which common vegetable plants are dependent on pollinators? Beans and tomatoes are setting fruit, and I had strawberries earlier. I suppose there are smaller bees going about their business, but I don't see very many. Maybe once my Russian Sage and lantana get going full blast, the bees will get more plentiful. I sure hope so!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ill take a shot at some of this. If the plant has a perfect flower, that means the bloom has both male and female parts, you probably dont need pollinators. Think tomatoes, peppers, and beans. The wind will pretty much pollinate them. An advantage of bees is they that shake the bloom, shake the pollen lose, and cause pollination. Usually the first beans I get are in one spot that looks like a bee was active pollinating them, but probably what actually happened a bee was just buzzing around down there, not necessarily moving pollen from flower to flower but shaking the flowers. Once I start picking the beans I dont have pollination problems. I think I shake them up enough just by picking to not have to rely on wind or insects. So pollinators don't hurt, just not totally necessary.

Things that have separate male and female flowers like squash need pollinators. Wind alone cant do it.

Many fruit trees are the only example if something that just can't self-pollinate but need a totally differetn variety to pollinate them. I can't think of any vegetables like that, but maybe someone else can.

Then you have corn. Doesnt need pollinators at all as long as the plants are close enough together. Those send off so much pollen from the tassels when you get a breeze that some have to hit the silks and pollinate them. I have been known to walk through a row of corn if I get poor germination and a poor stand and just use my fingers to collect a little pollen from the tassels and shake it in the silks. Im convinced this helps if the stand is not real thick.

 

[hoodat]

I've also noticed that there are only a few honeybees in my garden this year. The whole garden used to buzz with them. There are other pollinators but honeybees are best because they stick to one crop at a time. That way the correct pollen gets delivered to the correct flower. Oher pollinators flit from one plant to another resulting in inefficient pollination. Dandelion pollen delivered to squash blossoms is wasted.
As Ridgerunner noted, beans and the entire nightshade family (tomatos, peppers etc) are self pollinating. In fact bean and pea blossoms are closed to make it difficult for an insect to enter. They prefer to do their own pollinating.
You can sometimes get tomatos to pollinate just by giving the plant a shake if there is little wind in your garden.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I'm sorry they are all at my house! I have a lot of things they like. I have raspberries and the whole thing is covered in honey bees. I had comfrey so tall it fell over, 3 of them and they were covered in bumble bees. I put the comfrey in the compost bin and it will grow back. I have blackberries, strawberries, sage, other herbs, bee balm. I wonder if it is because I have the extra flowers and not just vegetables that they have something early to come too in the yard and then througout the summer and they stay. The bumble bees love coneflowers. I have a lot of rose bushes, cherry bushes, cherry tree, apple and plum trees.

 

[so lucky]

Well, I do have quite a few things blooming, but even my large stand of bee balm is bee-less. There are farm fields behind me. I hope they haven't sprayed some kind of bug killer. The soybeans are not really big enough to need spraying yet, tho, if they ever do.

 

[seedcorn]

I would expect most of us to see fewer bees as commercial bee keepers take them to be pollinators. Small bee keepers have their own crops for the bees. So unless some one close has bees, don't spend a lot of time looking for them.

 

[bj taylor]

gardening with rabbits, glad to hear you are having so many! I've seen one bumble bee so far this year. a scant few honey bees. not that they're pollinators, but I've seen only a handful of fire flies this year too.

 

[baymule]

Sounds like it might be a good time for you to check into starting a bee hive for yourself.

 

[so lucky]

I have thought about that. But first, I might contact the guy I buy honey from. I know he has hives all over the place. Maybe he would like to put one in my field.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I wonder if others in my area have bees. Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Indiana and California see fewer bees. I can buy raw honey about a mile from here and I know there are more. I am not sure if we have bees because of all the bee keepers, type of crops or the weather. Hard to imagine having bee balm and no bees.