Submitted by Don McCabe on behalf of Grounds Committee
Building bee boxes with Grounds Committee this past weekend (April 28, 2018) got me thinking. Perhaps there are others in Sunnyhill that are fascinated by our native bees, and might not know that:
- bees are the group of insects that are winged as adults, are social, and have short tongues; they differ from wasps in not having a constricted abdomen
- bees evolved about 100 MYA with the emergence of flowering plants
- there are about 25,000 species of bees worldwide
- there are 300-400 species of bees in Alberta and about 800 species in Canada (taxonomy is on-going)
- less than 5% of all species build hives and produce honey
- the well-known honey bee (Apis mellifera) was brought from Europe to North America in 1622
- bees eat/collect flower nectar and pollen, and thereby are key pollinators
- some native bee species are flower-specific
- some of the best plants for native bees: gum weed, potentilla, cinquefoil, vetch, bearberry, prairie clover, crocus, cactus
- like cuckoo birds, there are species of native cuckoo bees that lay their eggs in the nests of other bee species
- most of our native bees nest in ground (old burrows, dens, etc.) or in crevices (even hollow raspberry canes)
In the coming weeks, keep your eye out for little turquoise and purple boxes around the co-op, and your fingers crossed that some queen bees find them homey. Please do not disturb.
We will be checking the boxes in the fall and reporting our findings to the Alberta Native Bee Council. If you would like to be involved, please contact the Grounds Committee.