As another spring quickly approaches, there’s one annual arrival that seems to becoming less and less reliable as the seasons pass.  For example, my flowering cherry trees are blooming early this year due to the mild winter, and so far, they are missing one essential component that heralds the arrival of another growing season.

I’m talking about bees.

Although they strike fear into the heart of young children, teenage girls, and some older men (I’ve seen fellows my age breathlessly jump off of an elevated porch to get away from a single specimen), bees are a critical part of our ecosystem and their decline in recent years could spell disaster for the overall food chain.

Besides collecting nectar and making honey (one of the only foods that never goes bad, by the way), bees are one of the main pollinators of the insect world and are essential in allowing the crops in our gardens or the trees in our orchards to bear fruit and vegetables year after year.

So what’s happened to them? 

Well, there are a number of factors that have led to their decline.  The increased use of pesticides and chemicals in agriculture have killed off some.  Climate change and an overall warming of the planet have also contributed to habitat and population loss.  Pathogens from commercially raised bees have swept through the wild population, also destroying hives.  Lastly, invasive plant and animal species (think murder hornets and other types of plants that are not “bee friendly”) have also squeezed out wild or native species.

Add all that up, and according to some studies and reports, bee populations have declined by as much as 45%.  Losses like that are clearly unsustainable, and the impact of losing so many pollinators could be devastating to both agriculture and the ecosystem at large.

Even now, some large-scale farms have to have hives trucked in and temporarily staged at the edges of their fields when their crops are in flower, giving the visiting bees plenty of opportunities for fresh nectar and allowing the vital pollination of their plant crops to take place, which ensures that the end product (fruits, vegetables, or even nuts) makes it to your pantry or fridge. 

Can plants be hand-pollinated?  Yes, but it is very labor intensive and time consuming.  A human must use a small brush and go from plant to plant, transferring pollen (by hand) from male to female flowers.  Even an expert human pollinator can only succeed in completing anywhere from five to ten trees a day (depending on their size).  Now imagine how many people it would take to pollinate a commercial-sized farm.  As they say in the business, nature does it better.

So what can be done to help the bees?  Well, according to the National Park Service, there are several things you can do to help boost not only the bee population, but any pollinators.  Plant native species of flowers that bloom at different times throughout the growing season on your property.  Have a small source of water available that can provide thirsty visitors a small drink on their journey.  Limit the use of pesticides in your landscape, and have a spot in your yard that “runs wild”, where you allow leaves or other debris to remain over winter (giving pollinators a place to hide or nest during the off-season).

So the next time you see a bee buzzing around your porch or in your backyard, give that fella some space.  Odds are, he’s working hard to not only find a meal, but also to ensure that your own garden or fruit tree will provide a bountiful harvest later on this year.