Managing native bees is vital to sustaining populations.
>> Bee ID Common Characteristics • Mostly short, thick bodies covered in hair (some exceptions) • Six legs and three body parts: head, thorax, abdomen • Three segments in the thorax, each with three pairs of legs • Tiny waist and rounded abdomen tip (wasps have a pointed lower abdomen) • Branched hairs somewhere on their body • Two pairs of wings • Only females have stingers Bees are amazing creatures. Take one of each variety of bee in North America and put them all together and they’ll weigh about one pound. A honeybee hive houses
around 50,000 bees on average, and a queen bee can lay 800,000 eggs during her lifespan. Bees are fast, flying up to 15 miles per hour! They communicate through movement, often compared to dancing, and they are industriously neat in their cleaning, constructing and ensuring the future of their species. Honeybees live within a collective hive with thousands of worker bees supporting one queen, building a wax hexagonal structure, harvesting pollen and nectar, and facilitating the production of honey. Honey is chock full of amino acids, vitamins and minerals and is gentler on blood sugar levels than regular sugar. Beekeepers are common in the U.S. and are often referred to as honey farmers or apiarists. This method of bee management has the possibility of harming wild honeybee
populations and encroaching on their pollination territories. But honey is a bankable commodity on the world market. In recent years, more awareness and care has been brought to the industry to build a more sustainable future. One way we can promote sustainability and current pollinator health is to encourage and manage native bees. Mason bees are the most known North American native bee and get their name from the “masonry” work they do as they build small tube-shaped holes to lay their eggs and section off with mud. These amazing insects are more effective pollinators than honeybees but are solitary instead of hive dwellers. They also have a shorter lifespan: they emerge early in the spring, and then the female queen works alone for about 10 weeks to build
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