Well, during the years I've had milkweed on my property, I've never once seen any bee trapped by the flowers or any bee with anything like that on it. But I do know that many of the herbicides, pesticides and GMO crops have wiped out billions of bees. I miss the bumblebees...only seen one this year. The honeybees were doing fairly well early in the year, but I've seen very few since June. When my sumacs bloomed this month, I didn't see any bees. Long ago, there used to be tons of them during the sumac blooming.

That was very interesting about the milkweed and honey bees. This year I did see an increase in all kinds of bumble bees and more honey bees then I had for a couple of years, we do not get Monarch butterflies here, so no milkweed.

Let me just say that I don't think this is any reason not to have/plant milkweed. I think these articles were more about the strange pollination process that has to occur in light of how the milkweed flowers are structured. Obviously tons of bees & butterflies are not losing their lives on milkweed otherwise the beekeeper would have said so & been very concerned and we would be hearing about that from beekeepers all over the place not to mention that it would be touted that monarch butterflies are being killed by their host plant. I think bees, butterflies and other pollinators may sometimes be hurt or die but I imagine if you observed long enough it you would find it's the more rare occurrence and not the norm. Stuff happens.

Shhh, @mcash70, it's a secret. There are Monarchs near you...
http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/new...

Greene, the Monarchs may be in Kamloops because it has a warmer climate, I have lived here for 14 years and have not seen one single Monarch. I tried to find milkweed at the nurseries a few times for other butterflies and the bees. Maybe I will see if I can find seed for the native variety and start my own plants.

Toni said:@jenniferatemple
Maybe asking you before I do more diligent research is inappropriate
but, I can’t help but cringe at milkweed since I recently saw a documentary on how the milkweed is such a crazy attractant for honeybees that they can’t resist it but when they go to harvest its nectar and pollen they come back with this sticky substance that causes them to die a very slow death.... TERRIBLE
I wish I had written down who did the documentary (with pictures) but I was so appalled I didn’t think of it....
Do you have any experience with that?
I am always looking for wonderful things to plant for my honeybees and the butterflies but that one just scares me.

No, but then I cut the milk weed back when the cosmos really gets going and my bees seem to go for the cosmos. BUT, that is disturbing because the Monarchs really need the milkweed. It certainly makes for challenging decisions as to what to plant! If you can relocate that documentary, please post a line about who made it and the title. I would liker to watch it.

I never designed my yard specifically for wildlife, but I left half the backyard wild and preferred flowers that bees, butterflies, and hummers liked.

A lot of various flowers, butterfly bushes, coneflowers and monarda... And it helps that I'm organic. I still have honeybees and bumbles around each year, lots of various little bees I can't identify, small and large butterflies, hummers come every year, etc.

Sorry I'm not good at identifying the smaller native bees, but they are around all the time.

It is common to see a possum on the deck at night, a hawk in the backyard, and a wide variety of songbirds around the sunflower and thistle feeders.

I have recently put up an orange feeder, but haven't seen anything there yet. I have hopes.

The strangest thing I have seen in my yard was a pair of anhingas. I saw them in a tree and went crazy trying to figure out a "black egret". Then saw an article about wayward anhingas in the County (I'm in Southern MD) and they had been in MY tree.

But I credit being organic for all the life in the yard. I don' t especially work at it, I just try to do no harm.

To add to my previous post, I should mention that I have a 10' diameter "hummingbird, butterfly, and bee bed and a 20' diameter meadow bed in the backyard. And I allow clover in the lawn. It is routine for me to see bumblebees and honeybees and various other bees in the lawn and beds. I'm organic, the bees and hummers and butterflies love the place.

Walking through the lawn means not disturbing the bees on the clover. Whatever they need is fine with me. And I know where the clover is to not walk on it and bother the bees.

We have a lot of clover and it used to be a bee magnet. So far this year I've seen less than a dozen honey bees, those on the blackberries, and the only bees in the garden are bumblebees, pollenating the beans. We use no chemicals on the lawn, and clover, whatsoever.

We are on 6 ac. & only mow right around the house & the driveways (which are grass). The rest we don't mow until usually late Sept./Oct. Right now there is a veritable sea of white when you look out at the unmown portions. Native something in the aster family, they have blooms only about 1/2" across but are prolific. I have also wildsown rudbeckia, phlox, bee balm, flax, Mexican hat, clasping coneflower, several kinds of coreopsis, gallardia, standing cypress, chickory, lupine and I don't even remember everything else but they are all out there interspersed with the white which has center stage at the moment. I have sown clover but it doesn't seem to want to do much.
No poisons used here.

Our neighbors in the back have 16 ac. but it's mostly cow pasture for their cows. They do have 2 hives of bees. She told me year before last that they were so glad we let the wildflowers grow & don't mow because their bees produced a bumper crop of honey. The bees are particularly fond of one of our bird baths especially when high summer hits & they are looking for water during their foraging missions.

@flaflwrgrl, Good for you Ann, for contributing to the bee habitat. And good for your neighbor for recognizing the benefit of your contribution .

I have a feeling that our loss of bees is caused by agricultural chemicals.

Used to have lots of bees and bumbles, virtually none this year. Its been consistently getting worse for the last several years.

Thank you Mac & I agree about the agricultural chemicals.
Rj, last year & this, I have seen fewer of the native bees out there in the fields when I go walking through. I have also noticed a decline in the butterfly population the last 2 years. My husband just mentioned it today as a matter of fact.

There are a few hives within 1/4 mile of here. I don't know how productive they are, but we don't appear to be getting any visitors from them. Our bumblebee population is way down compared to the last few years too. And we're seeing fewer butterflies, lightning bugs, and even moths, and we have fewer bats than we've had in past years.

Agreed, also have had a loss in butterflies, virtually none...so far the dragonfly population seems stable. Probably ag chemicals, in my neighborhood at least 1/4 of the homes use a service for their lawns, fungicide, herbicide and fertilizer etc.

Haven't seen any dragonflies this year. I think all those "cides" have a very detrimental effect on the beneficial bugs. And that directly affects the birds, bats, and other creatures that consume them. We don't use anything on our yard except for a occasional application of fertilizer every 2-3 years. It has some weeds, and lots of clover. It's still green.

The problem is bees are wanders/ roamers that roam vast distances. doing what they've always done. collecting necter and pollen on plants that are 1 not native to the area and therefore do not help them much. and 2 are treated.


add to it they are attracted to the chemicals that harm them, and add to that people who make the decidions ( I wont mention any names here but you know what i mean) don't care about anything . they only want to get rich.

unless big changes happen again i wont say what. I don't think they have much of a hope after 2040 honestly. domesticated ones maybe because the hives can be carted off away from the sprays. but not wild bees.



still i plant things in a community garden away from sprays because i care about the earth and its creatures.... sigh.

We have tons of henbit, some clover and pink wood sorrel all over our yard at our cabin on 42 acres in Gause, TX. That's what I see bees on the most in Spring. We also have tons of wild spotted monarda, wild violets, Edwards Plateau Spiderworts, Dayflowers, along with many more wildflowers I've never seen before. The bees (and butterflies) are especially fond of the wild daisies, thistles, coneflowers, yellow ragwort, bastard cabbage blooms, and wild beautyberries we have there. I'm planting a couple milkweed this Spring.

I am an organic gardener, I chose to do this several years ago when I began my pollinator garden. I, too, have noticed the slow decline of honeybees, bumblebees and butterflies, especially the Monarchs. Monarch population is estimated to be 90 percent gone. The Mexican farmers are tearing down the native fir trees in the cloud rain forest where eastern Monarchs hibernate, and they are planting avocado trees so millions of Americans can have their guacamole. Please don't buy avocados. Bumblebees were designed to pollinate native plants, their disappearance is alarming. In my area, a friend who is a beekeeper told me that in certain states beekeepers had a 40 percent die off rate last winter in their honeybee hives, an unusually high rate. For myself, I have noticed my bumblebees have had a population decline of about 50 percent, despite the fact that no one around me uses killing insecticides or pesticides. My bumblebee queens overwintered in my backyard, underneath a weathered downed tree I left for that purpose. I do have a good population of two spotted longhorn bees, but the rest are in decline, despite my efforts towards conservation practices. Is it too late to help them? I would say for the Monarch, the answer is sadly yes. I predict Monarchs will be extinct in ten years or so. So very sad.