Online pollinator content: engaging with bees while we're social distancing
If you’re looking to learn more about beekeeping or pollinators in general, the links below provide great resources. The first three links provide reading materials and include an online pollinators program provided by Michigan State University, the fourth link provides pollinator-related activities geared towards kids, and the last link leads to a site with citizen science opportunities related to pollinators. Reading Resources If you’re looking to stay indoors but would lik
Should you keep bees?
This post was originally published on the pollinators.msu.edu website: https://pollinators.msu.edu/resources/beekeepers/shouldyoukeepbees/ In Michigan, we have a lovely rare bird called the Kirtland Warbler. It used to be endangered, but with decades of habitat restoration programs and breeding efforts the population is now in better health. If you wanted to help the Kirtland Warbler, you would help put in habitat (Jack pine forests), or you would donate to a conservation fu
Bee Hotels: a safe haven for Michigan’s wild bees
Why protect wild bees in Michigan? Michigan has an extraordinary 465 known species of bees. All of these bees play different roles in our ecosystem, including pollination of wildflowers and crops! We can thank Michigan’s bees for pollinating crops such as apples, blueberries, squash, cherries, and many others. Unfortunately, habitat loss is making life hard for many bees, with some bee populations declining over the past few decades. What can you do to help bees? Build a bee
Pollinators feed you. What can you do for them?
If you’ve been keeping up with previous posts on the Great Lakes, Great Bees Blog, you already know that bees are very diverse and also very important for our crops and natural ecosystems. In fact, there are over 20,000 bee species in the world and over 450 different bee species in Michigan alone. With this diversity comes many different roles. Some bees are specialists, like the squash bee (Peponapsis pruinosa), meaning that they pollinate just one or a few different plants.
Great Lakes Pollinator Health Project
Dr. Rufus Isaacs (Dept. of Entomology, Michigan State University) and collaborators are currently working on a USDA-NIFA funded project investigating pollinator health in Michigan. This project came about because of increasing concern over documented declines in honey bees, wild bees, and other pollinators. Declines in pollinator populations have been reported around the world, but the Great Lakes region has been of specific concern due to loss of natural habitat. Below, Koh
