Happy National Pollinator Week!!

Beeing (hahah) its National Pollinator Week thought I put up some links to some cool website. Like Save the Bumblebees, http://www.savethebumblebees.com/. It has links to keys and other helpful information.

Looking for images of bumblebees? Check out Bug Guides image gallery for the genus Bombus.

Another cool site on pollinators. North American Pollinators Protection Campaign.

and The North American Pollinator Protection Campaign and The Pollinator Partnership

Bee Decline

Preliminary Results: A Survey of Honey Bee Colonies Losses in the U.S. Between September 2008 and April 2009.

The Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) and USDA-ARS Beltsville Honey Bee Lab conducted a survey between September 2008 and early April 2009 to estimate colony loses across the country. Over 20% of the country’s estimated 2.3 million colonies were surveyed. A total loss of 28.6% of managed honey bee colonies was recorded. This compares to losses of 35.8% and 31.8% recorded respectively in the winters of 2007/2008 and 2006/2007. While a decrease in total losses is encouraging, the rate of loss remains unsustainable as the average operational loss increased from 31% in 2007/2008 to 34.2% in the 2008/2009 winter. Read on