Grow Theses Plants To Help Save Bees!

You can grow these plants to help save these important pollinators.

Herbs:

Lavender, Catmint, Sage, Cilantro, Thyme, Fennel, Borage, Rosemary, Comfrey, Hyssop, Thyme Marjoram, Lemon Balm, Fennel, Angelica, Wild Bergamot, Woundworts, Betony, Myrtle

Perennials:

Crocus, Buttercup, Aster, Hollyhocks, Anemone, Snowdrops, Geranium

Annuals:

Calendula, Sweet Asylum, Poppy, Sunflower, Zinnia, Clemone, Heliotrope

Wildflowers:

Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Bramble, Comfrey, Burdock, Teasels, Knapweed, Vetches, Cornflower, Thistles, Field Scabious, Viper’s Bugloss, Cat’s ear, Angelica, Red Bartsia, Sainfoin

Click here to see in a BIGGER form:

http://homesteadsurvival.tumblr.com/post/68505784567/plant-these-to-help-save-bees

and

Click here to read:

http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/files/bees.pdf

Source: HomesteadSurvival

Top flowers to grow for bees.

Albert Einstein once said, "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left." 

thanks rawforbeauty.com for this image

It is simple: No more bees; no more pollination; no more plants; no more animals, no more man.

The not-so-new crisis with the decline in bee populations is far more dangerous than the average person can imagine. So, while population science plays catch-up, and while we continue to fight big corporate GMO conglomerates that relish the opportunity to spray the earth with toxic pesticides, there are plenty of things that we, the little people, can do to help out the cause.

Above is a list of some of the more attractive, high-pollen, plants which can be grown in your yard, on your apartment's roof-tops, or hanging outside of your window, in a clay pot. Thankfully, not only will the bees enjoy it - you will, too!

Sign this petition to ban all bee killing pesticides!

Image: facebook.com/gardenofeating

A shocking 31% of America's honeybees died over the winter and this has been happening for the past 7 years. We're speeding towards the disastrous point at which we will not have enough bees to pollinate our crops.

Related: Insecticides to blame for massive bee die-off in Minneapolis

Neonicotinoid pesticides are known to cause bee deaths yet the EPA continues to approve their usage despite warnings from their own scientists. In fact, the EPA has just approved, Sulfoxaflor, yet another pesticide that is known to be highly toxic to bees.

In contrast, the European Union just banned this entire class of pesticides in an effort to protect its dwindling honey bee populations. The U.S. needs to follow Europe's lead, and fast!

We're almost to the goal!

Sign the petition here:http://www.change.org/petitions/epa-ban-bee-killing-pesticides-now

Scientists discover what’s killing the bees and it’s worse than you thought

As we’ve written before, the mysterious mass die-off of honey bees that pollinate $30 billion worth of crops in the US has so decimated America’s apis melliferapopulation that one bad winter could leave fields fallow. Now, a new study has pinpointed some of the probable causes of bee deaths and the rather scary results show that averting beemageddon will be much more difficult than previously thought.

Image: kezi.com

Scientists had struggled to find the trigger for so-called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that has wiped out an estimated 10 million beehives, worth $2 billion, over the past six years. Suspects have included pesticides, disease-bearing parasites and poor nutrition. But in a first-of-its-kind study published in the journal PLOS ONE, scientists at the University of Maryland and the US Department of Agriculture have identified a witch’s brew of pesticides and fungicides contaminating pollen that bees collect to feed their hives. The findings break new ground on why large numbers of bees are dying though they do not identify the specific cause of CCD, where an entire beehive dies at once.

When researchers collected pollen from hives on the east coast pollinating cranberry, watermelon and other crops and fed it to healthy bees, those bees showed a significant decline in their ability to resist infection by a parasite calledNosema ceranae. The parasite has been implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder though scientists took pains to point out that their findings do not directly link the pesticides to CCD. The pollen was contaminated on average with nine different pesticides and fungicides though scientists discovered 21 agricultural chemicals in one sample. Scientists identified eight ag chemicals associated with increased risk of infection by the parasite.

Most disturbing, bees that ate pollen contaminated with fungicides were three times as likely to be infected by the parasite. Widely used, fungicides had been thought to be harmless for bees as they’re designed to kill fungus, not insects, on crops like apples.

“There’s growing evidence that fungicides may be affecting the bees on their own and I think what it highlights is a need to reassess how we label these agricultural chemicals,” Dennis vanEngelsdorp, the study’s lead author, told Quartz.

Labels on pesticides warn farmers not to spray when pollinating bees are in the vicinity but such precautions have not applied to fungicides.

Bee populations are so low in the US that it now takes 60% of the country’s surviving colonies just to pollinate one California crop, almonds. And that’s not just a west coast problem—California supplies 80% of the world’s almonds, a market worth $4 billion.

In recent years, a class of chemicals called neonicotinoids has been linked to bee deaths and in April regulators banned the use of the pesticide for two years in Europe where bee populations have also plummeted. But vanEngelsdorp, an assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland, says the new study shows that the interaction of multiple pesticides is affecting bee health.

“The pesticide issue in itself is much more complex than we have led to be believe,” he says. “It’s a lot more complicated than just one product, which means of course the solution does not lie in just banning one class of product.”

The study found another complication in efforts to save the bees: US honey bees, which are descendants of European bees, do not bring home pollen from native North American crops but collect bee chow from nearby weeds and wildflowers. That pollen, however, was also contaminated with pesticides even though those plants were not the target of spraying.
“It’s not clear whether the pesticides are drifting over to those plants but we need take a new look at agricultural spraying practices,” says vanEngelsdorp.

Source: QZ.com

Study Shows Bee Venom Can Kill HIV Virus

Scientists from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered bee venom can kill the HIV virus without harming the body. Bees could hold the key to preventing HIV transmission. Researchers have discovered that bee venom kills the virus while leaving body cells unharmed, which could lead to an anti-HIV vaginal gel and other treatments.

Image: www.zimeye.org

Scientists at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that melittin, a toxin found in bee venom, physically destroys the HIV virus, a breakthrough that could potentially lead to drugs that are immune to HIV resistance. The study was published Thursday in the journal Antiviral Therapy.

“Our hope is that in places where HIV is running rampant, people could use this as a preventative measure to stop the initial infection,” Joshua Hood, one of the authors of the study, said in a statement.

The researchers attached melittin to nanoparticles that are physically smaller than HIV, which is smaller than body cells. The toxin rips holes in the virus’ outer layer, destroying it, but the particles aren’t large enough to damage body cells.

“Based on this finding, we propose that melittin-loaded nanoparticles are well-suited for use as topical vaginal HIV virucidal agents,” they write.

Theoretically, the particles could also be injected into an HIV-positive person to eliminate the virus in the bloodstream.

Because the toxin attacks the virus’ outer layer, the virus is likely unable to develop a resistance to the substance, which could make it more effective than other HIV drugs.

“Theoretically, melittin nanoparticles are not susceptible to HIV mutational resistance seen with standard HIV therapies,” they write. “By disintegrating the [virus'] lipid envelope [it's] less likely to develop resistance to the melittin nanoparticles.”

The group plans to soon test the gel in clinical trials.

Source: USnews.com & realfarmacy.com

Insecticides to blame for massive bee die-off in Minneapolis

(www.cornucopia.org) Last September, thousands of bees were mysteriously found dead in Minneapolis. Considering the continuing decline in bee population that threatens drastic consequences for our environment, the University of Minnesota's Bee Lab and Bee Squad teamed up with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) to investigate the cause of the massive die-off.

Image: www.greenpeace.org

The investigators gathered samples of dead bees and sent them to a lab in North Carolina, where it was confirmed that the bees had been poisoned by fipronil, an insecticide commonly used by commercial companies around the foundations of buildings. According to the MDA, fipronil sprayed on a house's foundation likely got on nearby plants, and from there foraging bees accidently carried the chemical back the hive.

The investigators determined that the insecticide was not applied by state or local government workers. The poison was probably sprayed either commercially or by a resident. Since the incident occurred in a residential area, it would likely be difficult to find out who is responsible for the bee kill. The MDA said that it is not going to investigate the matter further.

This incident serves as a perfect example of the vast unintended consequences that chemicals can have on our environment and shows that, contrary to what is conventionally practiced, the utmost caution should be used when working with pesticides.

Source: buzz.naturalnews.com

GMO Giants Suing to Overturn EU Bee-Killing Pesticide Ban

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Image: www.arc2020.eu

Bayer has just sued the European Commission to overturn a ban on the pesticides that are killing millions of bees around the world. A huge public push won this landmark ban only months ago -- and we can't sit back and let Big Pesticide overturn it while the bees vanish.

Bayer and Syngenta, two of the world's largest chemical corporations, claim that the ban is "unjustified" and "disproportionate." But clear scientific evidence shows their products are behind the massive bee die-off that puts our entire food chain in peril.

Just last month, 37 million bees were discovered dead on a single Canadian farm. And unless we act now, the bees will keep dying. We have to show Bayer now that we won't tolerate it putting its profits ahead of our planet's health. If this giant corporation manages to bully Europe into submission, it would spell disaster for the bees.

Sign the petition to tell Bayer and Syngenta to drop their bee-killing lawsuits here: action.sumofus.org/

Source: whatreallyhappened.com

As Bee Death Toll Skyrockets, Media Forced to Cover Neonicotinoid Pesticides

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A study published June 14th 2013, in the Journal of Applied Ecology sheds some much needed light on the severe implications of neonicotinoid insecticides. Neonicotinoid insecticides are applied to the seeds of target crops and grow with the plant which make them systemic within these crops, travelling through all the tissues of the plant. This makes them highly effective at killing insects, which in turn makes them the most widely used pesticides in the world.

The use of neonicotinoids is entirely contradictory to the sustainable farming method of integrated pest management (IPM). Also when comparing the cost of application to the benefit provided, the cost of the insecticide is often found to exceed that of actual crop yield. The author of the study, Prof Dave Goulson, says: “Studies from the US suggest that neonicotinoid seed dressings may be either entirely ineffective or cost more than the benefit in crop yield gained from their use. We seem to be in a situation where farmers are advised primarily by agronomists involved in selling them pesticides.”

New findings show that neonicotinoids persist and accumulate in the soil longer than originally findings have shown. Being systemic they are also in the pollen and nectar of treated plants, which provides for their unintended spreading and harm as the concentrations are sufficient to substantially impact colony reproduction in bumblebees. Only 20% of the applied chemical remains with the seed, the other 80% is lost during sowing in the air and soil. The aerial dust alone, that results from sowing seeds, has shown to cause
direct mortality in nearby flying honeybees.

The impact of pesticides on honeybees has taken such a toll that even the mainstream media is now forced to cover it.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

by Matt Agorist, RealFarmacy.com

Source: realfarmacy.com

Oregon Bans Over 12 Pesticides for 180 Days After Bee Die-Off

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Image: Raw For Beauty

State officials in Oregon are temporarily restricting the use of more than a dozen pesticide products following the deaths of an estimated 50,000 bumblebees in the Portland area this month.

The measure, effective immediately, will last for 180 days while the Oregon State Agricultural Department investigates incidents of a mass bee die-off in the Portland suburb of Wilsonville, and a much smaller die-off in neighboring Hillsboro.

Eighteen pesticide products containing the active ingredient dinotefuran and used for ornamental, turf and agricultural applications have been banned for now.

“I have directed the agency to take this step in an effort to minimize any potential for additional incidents involving bee deaths connected to pesticide products with this active ingredient until such time as our investigation is completed and we have more information,” the agency’s director, Katy Coba, said in a statement released Thursday.

“Conclusions from the investigation will help us and our partners evaluate whether additional steps need to be considered.”

A pesticide known as Safari, which contains dinotefuran and belongs to a class called neonicotinoids, caused the deaths of an estimated 50,000 bumblebees  in a Target parking lot in Wilsonville this month, authorities said. Crews have wrapped the affected linden trees around the lot with protective netting to prevent further deaths.

The staggering number marks the world’s largest recorded mass-die off of bumblebees, experts said. Initial estimates pegged the number of deaths at 25,000, but that figure doubled after a second assessment, said Scott Hoffman Black, executive director of the Portland-based Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

Late last week, a second report of dead bumblebees emerged in the Portland suburb of Hillsboro. City officials were alerted a week ago to a cluster of at least 100 bees on the ground beneath a single linden tree downtown.

Following Wilsonville’s lead, the city of Hillsboro bought netting to wrap around the tree, public affairs manager Patrick Preston told the Los Angeles Times. The Oregon Department of Agriculture visited the site to take samples and test whether pesticides also played a role. 

The city of Hillsboro sprayed 200 trees with Safari in March, Preston said. As the trees were not flowering at the time, city officials were following label directions, he said.

The city has sprayed the trees with Safari for the past three years. This is the first time bee deaths have been reported, Preston said.

“If Safari is found to have been behind the bee deaths then we will not be using it anymore,” Preston said.

Valent U.S.A. Corp., the manufacturer of Safari, said in a statement this week that it was making a donation to pay for the protective netting surrounding the Wilsonville trees.  The company also sent an entomologist to work with city and state officials.

The company said it is committed to protecting pollinators, noting the product label warns against applying the product or allowing it to drift to blooming foliage if bees are present.

“Valent also promotes the responsible use of our products, and we are actively conducting outreach with our customers and industry partners to reinforce the importance of responsible use according to label guidelines,” the statement said.

But scientists with the Xerces Society said the discovery in Hillsboro shows that the pesticide can have a lasting impact in the environment, and have urged city and county governments to ban the cosmetic use of pesticides entirely.

Meanwhile, Portland’s ecologically-minded activists have organized a memorial for the dead bees. Organizer Rozzell Medina, an artist and educational activist in Portland, said that once he heard the bee deaths were caused by a pesticide, he became “very sad about it, very concerned.”

Medina soon realized that others in the community shared his distress. He decided to plan a memorial where people could gather, share information and discuss the incident.   

“This isn’t a funeral,” Medina, who earned a master’s in leadership and sustainability education from Portland State University and now works there as a program coordinator, told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday. “We’re not there to bury the bees or build little bee coffins. We’re going there to talk about what this means.”

The event will take place in the Target parking lot in Wilsonville where the bees were discovered.

Sources: Raw For Beauty
LAtimes.com

The History of Monsanto in 2 Minutes

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You’ll get a gas out of this 2 minute animation. Jeff Bigman does it again! The Non-GMO Theater presents the “History of Monsanto” from the 1930s to the present day. This video was created by the talented Jeff Bigman, the animator for the full length documentary “Genetic Roulette, The Gamble of Our Lives"


Source: Raw For Beauty

Study: US Lost 31.1 Percent of Entire Bee Population This Year

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Matt Agorist
Real Farmacy

Tough talk: ‘Basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold at A study done by Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) illustrates the true threat that honey bee colonies face. The bee losses for the 2011/2012 winter were 22 percent. This year, 2012/2013 saw a near 10 percent increase in total losses of managed honey bees nationwide.

The survey, which covered from October 2012 through April 2013, was conducted by University of Maryland research scientist Dennis vanEngelsdorp, who is also director of the Bee Informed Partnership, in collaboration with Jeff Pettis, research leader of the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., and others. More information about the Bee Informed Partnership is available online at http://beeinformed.org/

According to the study, more than two-thirds of responding beekeepers (70 percent) reported losses greater than 14 percent, the level of loss that beekeepers stated as allowing them to remain economically viable as a business.

Unlike previous years in which the majority of bee losses were attributed to Colony Collapse Disorder, this year colonies were observed “dwindling away.” Beekeepers did not report CCD as a major cause of colony loss this past winter, which follows the previous year’s trend.

As REALfarmacy.com has pointed out, studies have shown that neonicotinoid pesticide use is impacting honeybees on a genetic level, causing a decrease in the ability of bee larva to survive to adulthood.

There are an abundance of reasons why bee populations are suffering yet researchers have shown a direct correlation with neonicotinoid pesticides and they continue to be the most widely use pesticides in the country. While the EU has placed a temporary, 2 year ban on two neonicotinoids, clothianidin and thiamethoxam, the evidence shows that levels can remain in soil for longer than this period which hardly makes this ban effective. Also neonicotinoids will still be widely used on cereals which will continue the broad impact. The EPA in the United States recently approved Bayer’s clothianidin and thiamethoxam despite the myriad of evidence that ties neonicotinoids to bee deaths.

Source: Real Farmacy

Monsanto's EPA Raises Allowable RoundUp Pollution Levels

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Image theorganicprepper.ca

Great news!  You no longer have to worry about excessive levels of glyphosate, the toxic chemical found in Monsanto’s Round-up pesticide, in your food or in the feed that livestock consumes.  Why not?  Well, the Environmental Deception Protection Agency has looked over the situation, and in their infinite wisdom, raised the safety threshold of glyphosate that is allowed to be in consumable goods.

The EPA’s change of heart means that the the allowed glyphosate level in animal feed will rise to 100 parts per million (ppm) and 40 ppm in oilseed crops.  Thankfully, there’s no need for us to worry because they’ve assured us that the new allowable levels are only “minimally toxic” to humans.

The EPA is the agency that is charged with protecting the air we breathe, the soil in which we grow our food and the water that we drink. Unfortunately the only responsibility they seem to take seriously is their commitment to furthering the agendas of big business.  This decision to allow more Roundup to drench the food supply comes immediately after two major, peer reviewed studies have proven that glyphosate is deadly.

The first study found that glyphosate increases the breast cancer cell proliferation in the parts-per-trillion range.

An alarming new study, accepted for publication in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology last month, indicates that glyphosate, the world’s most widely used herbicide due to its widespread use in genetically engineered agriculture, is capable of driving estrogen receptor mediated breast cancer cell proliferation within the infinitesimal parts per trillion concentration range. 

The study, titled, “Glyphosate induces human breast cancer cells growth via estrogen receptors,” compared the effect of glyphosate on hormone-dependent and hormone-independent breast cancer cell lines, finding that glyphosate stimulates hormone-dependent cancer cell lines in what the study authors describe as “low and environmentally relevant concentrations.”(source)

Another study found that consumption of glyphosate causes intestinal and gut damage, which opens the door to numerous human diseases, such as diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders, heart disease, obesity, autism, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s

However, another classification of allergy-type food is emerging and getting recognized for adverse effects on the human intestinal tract and gut. Those foods are genetically modified organisms known as GMOs or GEs. There is scientific research indicating intestinal damage from GMO food and the article “Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Disease” discusses how the inordinate amount of pesticides sprayed on GMOs leaves residues in GMO crops that, in turn, are being traced to modern diseases.  (source)

The Organic Consumers Association is very concerned.  They are behind a petition to lobby the EPA to lower the allowable glyphosate levels instead of raising them. (Find it HERE)  The OCA cites numerous reasons why the EPA’s current move is a deadly mistake:

Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the world.  According to the EPA, at least 208 million tons of Roundup were sprayed on GE crops, lawns and roadsides in the years 2006 and 2007. In 2007, as much as 185 million pounds of glyphosate was used by U.S. farmers, double the amount used just six years ago. 

A 2009 study found that Americans use about 100 million pounds of glyphosate annually on their lawns and gardens. It’s safe to assume all these number are much higher now. Why? Because GE crops are now being invaded by new strains of herbicide-resistant “superweeds” requiring higher and higher doses of poison.

Beyond Pesticides has assembled extensive documentation of past research linking glyphosate to increased cancer risk, neurotoxicity and birth defects, as well as eye, skin, respiratory irritation, lung congestion, increased breathing rate, damage to the pancreas, kidney and testes. 

Glyphosate also endangers the environment, destroys soil and plants, and is linked to a host of health hazards. The EPA’s decision to increase the allowed residue limits of glyphosate is out of date, dangerous to the health of people and the environment and scientifically unsupportable. (source)

So why would the EPA make this ruling?

Because instead of being an unbiased agency looking out for public interest, they are merely puppets for the biotech industry.  They spread disinformation from beneath a cloak of benevolence and authority.  They use the trust that people have put in them to deceive and manipulate the public in favor of big business.

Here are some examples of their incestuous partnerships:

The EPA has been accused of covering up crimes committed by public health enemy #1, Monsanto, as well as Dow Chemicals.  The EPA’s investigation proved that Monsanto knowingly tainted Lysol (used by moms everywhere to sanitize babies’ toys) with dioxin.  However, no criminal charges have been forthcoming as of this publication.

The EPA also quietly closed an investigation of Monsanto’s twisted cover-up in the Nitro, West Virginia herbicide plant accident that exposed hundreds of workers to deadly carcinogen dioxin, which can still be found in nearby streams and lakes. Despite the fact that this investigation simply disappeared, Monsanto agreed in February to pay $93 million dollars to residents of Nitro in order to settle a class action lawsuit.

 The EPA has refused to ban a pesticide made by Dow Chemicals, the controversial 2,4-D, the same substance used in Agent Orange. This pesticide will be used on corn crops that have been genetically engineered to be resistant to the toxin.  Agent Orange causes cancer, hormone disruption, genetic mutations and neurotoxicity and will be soon be coming to a corn field near you. 

The EPA has refused a petition to ban BPA in industry, citing a lack of scientific evidence of the negative effects of the chemical. BPA is commonly found tainting canned goods, especially soup, and bottled water that has been exposed to heat. (Author’s note:  It would probably be very expensive for industry to have to replace all those containers with BPA-free cans and bottles.) (source) 

The EPA pulled an identical sleight of hand when radiation from the Fukushima disaster began to reach the United States in 2011.  They raised the acceptable levels of radiation, stopped measuring it, and even tried to convince us that a little radiation was actually good for us: 

The EPA is right on top of things with their response, of course. First, they promptly closed down 8 of 18 radiation measuring stations in the hardest hit area, California.  Then, to further calm the good people of the nation, the EPA magically changed the numbers.  They’ve raised the amount of radiation that we can safely absorb and ingest.  It wouldn’t do for the large factory farms to be unable to sell their tainted produce or for the huge dairies to be stuck with all that radioactive milk. 

The radiation in our food supply is of so little concern to the EPA that they’ve actually begun to tell us that a little bit of radiation is good for us. According to a report citing the EPA, a bit of radiation can prevent cancer, instead of causing it. 

Since our minds can be at ease now, the EPA has decided that they are no longer planning to monitor the radiation levels in our food supply.  They will return to their previous practice of only monitoring random samples every three months.  Yep.  Really.  The Environmental Protection Agency of the United States is no longer monitoring radiation levels in our food and water supplies as of April 14th.  That will definitely keep them from getting those inconveniently high readings that might affect Big Agra’s prosperity.  (source)

The government’s consumer protection agencies are hopelessly corrupted.  The FDA, the EPA, and the USDA are all servants of Big Food, Big Pharma and Big Agri.  We are on our own.  The public outcry will be muffled in the mainstream media because, well, Big Food, Big Pharma, and Big Agri own them too – you need only look at the advertisers to see this.

Therefore, we have to resort to other means to spread the word. We have to be so loud and so adamant that even the sleepiest individual will have no option but to see what is going on.  So, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to “out” the EPA for this disastrous decision.

Share information via social media

Protest publicly

Sign this petition and persuade everyone you know to sign it too

Contact the EPA directly and let them know your thoughts on this matter (please be civil)

Here’s the phone number for the office of the EPA’s administrator – give him a call:  (202)564-4711

Write letters to the editor of all of your local publications

Make comments on message boards for the mainstream media (they’ll get deleted but a few people might read them first)

Don’t purchase processed foods or any foods that may contain GMOs, including factory farmed meats.  The animals are given GMO feed throughout the course of their entire lives

Please understand, the system is irrevocably corrupted. Only by shedding light on this corruption can we make a change.  People are being lulled into compliance, all the while, feeling that there are measures in place to ensure that what they consume from the grocery store is not poison.

Food safety should not be in the hands of the highest bidder.

Source: The Organic Prepper

Top 30 Flowers For Bees

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Bees are vital. Without them, pollination of crops doesn't occur. Bees work tirelessly to provide us with our food, but are struggling in the wild. In recent years it has become apparent that bees, not just the honeybee, are under threat and some have already gone extinct. Find out on this lens which flowers to grow for pollen and nectar that will feed them and help them to increase their numbers. Insects and plants must now be taken care of by gardeners if they are to survive.The private garden is now a better place than the countryside for wildlife, since much agricultural land is now devoid of the diversity of flowers insects need to give them their 'five a day'. It is now thought by scientists in the field that insects need as much variety in their food as we do to get all the trace minerals and vitamins to keep them healthy, so go on, plant flowers for the bees!

HA= Hardy annual   HHA =Half hardy annual   P = Perennial   HB= Hardy biennial   HS= Hardy shrub

·  1

Cosmos (HHA) is an annual flower easily raised from seed. It’s also one of the very best for the bee. Grow it in groups, making the collection of pollen easier for the bees, who won’t have to fly as far to find their food. Cosmos grows 2-5ft tall, the majority reaching about 2ft. It’s from Mexico, so a half hardy annual. Plant out after all danger of frost has passed, and deadhead to keep them flowering continuously through the summer. These open, flat flowers will delight you as well as giving the bees a feast.

·  2

Aster (HHA) ‘Compostion’ or Michaelmass Daisies. Many modern hybrids have little or no pollen. easy to grow, colorful and late summer to autumn flowering, they provide food late in the season. Important if honeybees are to be well fed to get through the winter months.

·  3

Sunflowers (HA) are a great choice, available in many heights and colours to suit your garden space. Choose yellow or orange over red, which bees don’t like. Varieties exist now for the allergic gardener, containing no pollen. Obviously avoid these when wishing to attract bees.

·  4

Calendulas or marigolds (HA) are great for bees, especially the original single flowered pot marigold. Dead head regularly for a longer flowering period.

·  5

Primulas. (HP) The native primrose, (primula vulgaris), primulas of all kinds, even the drumstick ones are great early food for bees. Cowslips (primula veris) are also good members of this extensive family of perennial plants.

·  6

Rudbekia (HHA) are an extensive group of cone flowers from the aster family. A wide variety of heights, mostly available in yellows and oranges, sure to brighten your border and feed bees. There are also a few hardy perennial ones, of which ‘Goldsturn’ is my personal favourite. All are easy to grow from seed.

·  7

Scabious or cornflowers (HA), another aster family member, are mostly blue flowered and bees adore them. Dead-headed regularly, they’ll flower all summer long.

·  8

Lavender (HHS) There are plenty of lavenders to choose from, all needing plenty of sun and well drained soil, but they’ll reward you with plenty of fragrant flowers for cutting and drying. Just watch them get smothered in bees when they come into flower.

·  9

Bluebells (bulb) Another early food supply. Just a note of caution for UK growers. The native English bluebell in now under threat from the Spanish bluebell, which outcompetes and crosses with it. So please ensure you are planting the native bluebell to ensure you don’t endanger a bluebell woodland near you.

·  10

Hellebores (HP) The Christmas rose! A lovely flower to have in your garden from late winter to early spring, this plant will tolerate some shade and moist conditions, though not wet. When bees emerge from hibernation they need food fast. This one gives them a snack when there’s little else around.

·  11

Clematis (Perennial climber) The majority of clematis will provide pollen, and I’ve watched bees happily moving from flower to flower gathering their crop. Always plant clematis deeper than they were in the container, as this gives more protection against cleamits wilt. These plants are hungry and thirsty, so add good compost to the planting hole. They also like their roots in the cool and heads in the sun, so once planted I place either a thick mulch or a pile of stones or gravel around their roots, keeping them cool and conserving moisture.

·  12

Crocus (bulb) Early flowering, plenty to choose from, and planted in the autumn to flower year after year. These are great value and cheer me up as well as the bees!

·  13

Mint (HP), especially water mint, is loved by bees. It’s great in your cooking, too. Easy to grow, it can be a bit of a thug, so either grow it in a container or prevent its escape around the garden by burying a bucket (with holes in the bottom for drainage) and plant your mint into that.

·  14

Rosemary (HHS) A mediterranean herb, rosemary likes well drained soild and full sun. It flowers around April/May. A great culinary herb, bees will take advantage of the pollen as long as you prune it correctly. This is best done straight after flowering, as most of the flowers will appear on new wood. Don’t prune rosemary back to old, bare wood as these are not likely to regrow. Depending on where you live and soil conditions, rosemary can be short lived, so take some cuttings each year so you can replace the old plant should it dsie or become too leggy.

·  15

Thyme (H to HHS)) There are now quite a few varieties available, tasting slightly different to each other eg lemon thyme. However, I’ve noticed that the wild thyme (thymus serpyllum) attracts a lot of bee visitors and tends to flower more profusely. But they are all worth growing. Give them the same growing conditions as rosemary and lavender.

·  16

Hebe (HH-HS) This extensive group of shrubs have wonderful flowers for bees. Plenty of pollen, all on one flower and plenty of flowers on one shrub. They vary in height, are mosly blue or pink and tolerate most soils. They dislike too much wet, so a well drained soil is best. Water well, though, until established.

·  17

Borage, the bee herb. (HA) Borage is blue flowered, simple to grow and in fact one type grows wild in the UK, though originally from Syria. Easy, prolific and the bees love it.

·  18

Echinacea, the cone flower. (HP) Now available in a variety of colours, all of which will attract bees. Echinacea Tennesseensis will attract birds, bees and butterflies.

·  19

Mignotette. There are HA, HHA and Perennial members of this family. They are sweetly scented and will attract and feed your bees, especially Reseda lutea.

·  20

Thrift, or Sea Pink (HP) is a great plant for a rock garden, trough or wall. Holding its bright pink flowers well above the grass-like foliage, it will cheer your garden and make the bees come back for more! Give it well drained condiitons and lots of sun.

·  21

Sedums are also excellent plants for rock gardens and walls. There are many to choose from, but avoid Sedum Spectabilis Autumn Joy if you’re planting for bees. Biting stonecrop and English stonecrop (sedums acre and anglicum). are natives, and great for bees.

·  22

Sweet Williams (Dianthus barbatus) (HB) are fantastic flowers for bees. An old cottage garden favourite, bees are attracted to the pink or white flowers and we love the perfume! They are members of the dianthus family, as are Pinks and Carnations, all of which are good for the bees.

·  23

Monarda (Bergamot) (HP) This is the herb that flavours Earl Grey tea, but the bees love its flowers for pollen and nectar. Its folk name in the Uk is bee balm. It likes a moist but not wet soil and can cope with a bit of shade. Share it with the bees! Bergamot tea is a herbal treat in itself. Just pour boiling water on the leaves and allow about ten minutes before drinking.

·  24

Cornflower (HA) Easy to grow, cheap and cheerful, cornflowers are another cottage garden favourite. Thier blue flowers act like a bee magnet. Grow in as large a group as you have the space for. This makes it easier for the bees to spot them and saves them flying around more than necessary. It’s easy to save seed from one year to the next, too.

·  25

Poppies (HA-HP) All poppies are attractive to bees, and are laden with pollen in nice open flowers. Very easy to grow, especially the annual kinds, and easy to save seeds to sow next year. Enjoy their delicate petals while your bees enjoy a feast.

·  26

Verbena Bonariensis (HP) a tall, delicate looking perennial with purple/mauve flowers that add a tropical feel to your borders. This is easy to grow from seed and sown early enough will flower in its first year. One not to do without!

·  27

Snapdragons (Antirrhinum) (HHA) Plenty of choice in heights and colours. Have you ever watched a bee enter and leave a snapdragon? Their weight pulls the lower part of the petal down so they can get inside for their food, and you can hear them buzzing while they are in there. Lovely to watch.

·  28

Ageratum (HHA) Easy to grow, with heads of blue flowers and another member of the compositae family, so lots of food on one flower head. This is one of my favorite annuals in the garden. Just don’t plant out until all danger of frost has passed and dead head for more flowers.

·  29

Echinops (globe thistle) (HP) This lovely blue thistle is very ornamental, even when not in flower, standing about 36″ tall. Bees and butterflies love the flowers which provide plenty of nectar. Easy to grow from seed and will come back year after year.

·  30

Digitalis (foxglove) (HB) Foxgloves make great food for bees. As they are poisonous, protect children from them and handle wearing gloves. As long as these precautions are taken these are wonderful plants for the garden and the bees. A woodland plant, they’re useful for a shady spot.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Study: Pesticides Are Leading Cause of Bee Die-Offs

Create a Honeybee Haven with Native Plants and Flowering Herbs

Study: Pesticides Are Leading Cause of Bee Die-Offs

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As we’ve written before, the mysterious mass die-off of honey bees that pollinate $30 billion worth of crops in the US has so decimated America’s apis mellifera population that one bad winter could leave fallow. Now, a new study has pinpointed some of the probable causes of bee deaths and the rather scary results show that averting beemageddon will be much more difficult than previously thought.

Photo: Ben Margot

Scientists had struggled to find the trigger for so-called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that has wiped out an estimated 10 million beehives, worth $2 billion, over the past six years. Suspects have included pesticides, disease-bearing parasites and poor nutrition. But in a first-of-its-kind study published today in the journal PLOS, scientists at the University of Maryland and the US Department of Agriculture have identified a witch’s brew of pesticides and fungicides contaminating pollen that bees collect to feed their hives. The findings break new ground on why large numbers of bees are dying though they do not identify the specific cause of CCD, where an entire beehive dies at once.

When researchers collected pollen from hives on the east coast pollinating cranberry, watermelon and other crops and fed it to healthy bees, those bees showed a significant decline in their ability to resist infection by a parasite called Nosema ceranae. The parasite has been implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder though scientists took pains to point out that their findings do not directly link the pesticides to CCD. The pollen was contaminated on average with nine different pesticides and fungicides though scientists discovered 21 agricultural chemicals in one sample. Scientists identified eight ag chemicals associated with increased risk of infection by the parasite.

Most disturbing, bees that ate pollen contaminated with fungicides were three times as likely to be infected by the parasite. Widely used, fungicides had been thought to be harmless for bees as they’re designed to kill fungus, not insects, on crops like apples.

“There’s growing evidence that fungicides may be affecting the bees on their own and I think what it highlights is a need to reassess how we label these agricultural chemicals,” Dennis VanEngelsdorp, the study’s lead author, told Quartz.

Labels on pesticides warn farmers not to spray when pollinating bees are in the vicinity but such precautions have not applied to fungicides.

Bee populations are so low in the US that it now takes 60% of the country’s surviving colonies just to pollinate one California crop, almonds. And that’s not just a west coast problem—California supplies 80% of the world’s almonds, a market worth $4 billion.

In recent years, a class of chemicals called neonicotinoids has been linked to bee deaths and in April regulators banned the use of the pesticide for two years in Europe where bee populations have also plummeted. But VanEngelsdorp, an assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland, says the new study shows that the interaction of multiple pesticides is affecting bee health
.
“The pesticide issue in itself is much more complex than we have led to be believe,” he says. “It’s a lot more complicated than just one product, which means of course the solution does not lie in just banning one class of product.”

The study found another complication in efforts to save the bees: US honey bees, which are descendants of European bees, do not bring home pollen from native North American crops but collect bee chow from nearby weeds and wildflowers. That pollen, however, was also contaminated with pesticides even though those plants were not the target of spraying.

“It’s not clear whether the pesticides are drifting over to those plants but we need take a new look at agricultural spraying practices,” says VanEngelsdorp.

Sources: Raw For Beauty
qz.com

Illinois illegally seizes bees resistant to Monsanto's Roundup

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The Illinois Ag Dept.  illegally seized privately owned bees from renowned naturalist, Terrence Ingram, without providing him with a search warrant and before the court hearing on the matter, reports Prairie Advocate News.

Behind the obvious violations of his Constitutional rights is Monsanto. Ingram was researching Roundup’s effects on bees, which he’s raised for 58 years.  “They ruined 15 years of my research,” he told Prairie Advocate, by stealing most of his stock.

A certified letter from the Ag Dept.’s Apiary Inspection Supervisor, Steven D. Chard, stated:

“During a routine inspection of your honeybee colonies by … Inspectors Susan Kivikko and Eleanor Balson on October 23, 2011, the bacterial disease ‘American Foulbrood’ was detected in a number of colonies located behind your house…. Presence of the disease in some of your colonies was confirmed via test results from the USDA Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland that analyzed samples collected from your apiary….”

Ingram can prove his bees did not have foulbrood, and planned to do so at a hearing set in April, but the state seized his bees at the end of March. They have not returned them and no one at the Ag Dept. seems to know where his bees are.

The bees could have been destroyed, or they could have been turned over to Monsanto to ascertain why some of his bees are resistant to Roundup. Without the bees as evidence, Ingram simply cannot defend against the phony charges of foulbrood.

Worse, all his queens died after Kivikko and Balson “inspected” his property, outside of his presence and without a warrant.

Of note, Illinois beekeepers are going underground after Ingram’s experience and refuse to register their hives, in case the state tries to steal their private property on phony claims.

Sources: realfarmacy.com

globalresearch.ca

Create a Honeybee Haven with Native Plants and Flowering Herbs

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Nowadays it’s pretty well-known that honey bees around the world are in decline. Even Monsanto and other companies that churn out pesticides are acknowledging the problem with a grand charade called a “Honey Bee Health Summit.” While we have little sway over the chemical corporatists, we can do other things to help the honey bee.

The best way to go about this in our own yards is to plant flowering trees, shrubs, and perennials native to your region. At PlantNative you can select your state and get a list of native landscaping plants. The red maple tree attracts honey bees in droves in the early spring. Perennials like purple coneflower, blanket flower, and beebalm are beautiful bee-attracting plants. Set aside a space in the yard for a mini prairie garden, which is low maintenance and full of year-round color.

Native Plant Wildlife Gardening has a great list of native plants for attracting honey bees. Use a variety of plants with different flowering times to provide year-round food. Plant flowers in large patches rather than a single one here and there, which will make it easier for bees to find.

Clover is not the nuisance plant that herbicide companies proclaim on their bags of product. Let clover grow and flower for the bees; it will die back as the grass starts to grow in late spring. Lawns can be seeded in the fall with red clover, which will bloom in the spring and provide a bounty for the bees while you enjoy the beautiful blooms.

Flowering herbs are honey bee magnets. Basil, borage, oregano, mints, and salvias are all great choices. Oregano can serve as a groundcover in a wildlife garden. Let basil flower and reseed for a continuous supply of leaves for yourself and food for the bees.

Many vegetable plants are attractive to honey bees, especially the cucurbit flowers (cucumbers, squash, melons). Broccoli makes lots of small yellow flowers that really bring in the bees, so let some broccoli go to flower after you get a few good harvests. What a joy it is to know that our pollinator friends are having a feast on the flowers after we have feasted on the vegetables. Mustard greens also make good flowers for bees and other beneficial insects.

Just as important as planting bee-friendly plants is to avoid the use of chemical pesticides. In a well managed garden using the principles of Integrated Pest Management, pesticides are rarely needed. And most problems can be dealt with using organic products like Neem oil that do not harm honey bees or other beneficial insects. Chemical pesticides leave a residue on pollen, which the bees pick up and bring back to the hive.

Source: Justin Gardener, REALfarmacy.com