Urban Beekeeping CHC Convention Report Fred Rathje Award Plants for Bees Call Mike at 1-866-948-6084 Today Or Email [email protected]

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Urban Beekeeping CHC Convention Report Fred Rathje Award Plants for Bees Call Mike at 1-866-948-6084 Today Or Email Mike@Globalpatties.Com February 2010 Vol 23 # 1 1 2010 www.honeycouncil.ca Canadian Honey Council Urban Beekeeping CHC Convention Report Fred Rathje Award Plants for Bees Call Mike at 1-866-948-6084 today or email [email protected] Proud sponsor of the Canadian Honey Council E-mail: [email protected] Distributors Lewis Farms, Austin, MB 204-637-2277 Manitoba Co-op Honey Producers, 625 Roseberry St, Winnipeg, MB 204-783-2240 BeeMaid Honey Ltd. 1210 – 100 Street, Tisdale, SK, 306 873-2521 Alberta Honey Co-op, 70 Alberta Ave. Spruce Grove AB, 780-962-5573 One-piece plastic drone comb Canadian Honey Council HiveHiveLightsLights February 2010 Vol 23 #1 The Canadian Honey Council (CHC) is the national organization of the Canadian beekeeping industry Canadian Honey Council`s trade display at the joint ABF and CHC Convention in Orlando, Florida and Hivelights is the industry’s magazine. Our Photo: Geoff Todd association is an “organization of organizations”. The colour of the spine of Hivelights has One of the benefits of belonging to our member changed to blue for 2010 to match the international code for marking queens. organizations is that all members receive a copy of A quick way to remember the code: Hivelights magazine. In order to receive Hivelights Year ending in: you must be a current member of your provincial When White 1/6 association. International subscribers can receive our You Yellow 2/7 high quality magazine for a fee of $50 Canadian per Requeen Red 3/8 year. Get the Green 4/9 Schools, libraries, non beekeepers, university Best Blue 5/0 or government personnel can receive Hivelights magazine through special membership as “Friends of TableofContents Canadian Apiculture”. Please contact the CHC office for more information. 3 Canadian Honey Council Activities ......................... Heather Clay 4 2009 CHC Directors Canadian Honey Council 4 CAPA Outstanding Service Award: Doug McRory Suite 236, 234-5149 Country Hills Blvd.NW 4 OAC Alumni Distinguished Extension Award Calgary, AB T3A 5K8 Professor Ernesto Guzman ................................George Robinson Hivelights is published quarterly (Feb, May, Aug, 5 Provincial Reports .................................................................. CHC Directors Nov). Deadline for submissions are 6 weeks prior 9 Fred Rathje Award ................................................................ Heather Clay to publication (i.e. Dec 15th for Feb issue). For 10 Research Related to the Canadian Pollination guidelines on article submission and advertising rates Initiative (CANPOLIN) ............................................... Ernesto Guzman please visit our website at www.hivelights.ca 12 Urban Beekeeping ................................................................... Allen Garr 13 North American Beekeeping Annual The opinions expressed in the articles printed in Convention Report ..................................................................Corey Bacon Hivelights are those of the authors and do not imply 17 Beekeeping Project in Armenia ............................... Peter Keating endorsement of the Canadian Honey Council for 19 Plants for Bees: subUrban Apiaries ......................Douglas Clay the promotion of any product, goods or services 23 Integrated Management of Nosema mentioned unless specifically stated. & Detection of Antibiotic Residues .............. Stephen F. Pernal, Abdullhah Ibrahim and Andony P. Melathopoulos 25 SBA Receives Multi-year Funding Editor ...................................................Heather Clay 26 Classifieds Design and Production ............... Cristian Campean Advertising enquiries ............................. Geoff Todd Publisher .......................... Canadian Honey Council Printer ..............................................McAra Printing Publication Mail Agreement number 40031644 ISSN 1489-730X Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to CANADIAN HONEY COUNCIL Suite 236, 234 -5149 Country Hills Blvd. NW Calgary, AB T3A 5K8 [email protected] www.honeycouncil.ca (403) 208 7141 www.saveourbees.ca HiveLights February 2010 1 !RELIABLEPARTNER "EEKEEPERSHAVEHADTOBROADENTHEIRMANAGEMENT SKILLSEVENFURTHERWITHINCREASINGCHALLENGESBY DISEASESANDPESTS 7ECANHELPBYSUPPLYINGYOUWITHTHEINFORMATION YOUNEEDTOMAKEINFORMEDDECISIONSABOUTDISEASEPREVENTION ANDTHEROLEOFPHARMACEUTICALSINYOURMANAGEMENTPRACTICES 4VQQMJFSTPG 0YZUFU4PMVCMF 'VNBHJMJO# 'PSNJD"DJE #FF3FQFM "QJTUBO 'PVM#SPPE.JY WWWMEDIVETCA CanadianHoneyCouncil AGM by member organizations. Small Hive Beetle Heather Clay, Chief Executive Officer, CHC The Quebec provincial apiarist has Sponsorship reported that the province has set up creamed organic clover sentinel hives and is monitoring the We are pleased to announce honey. The bottles were SHB issue. The beetle continues to that Odem International shrink wrapped with our exist in the border area but seems to has agreed to renew their logo pure honey 100% have limited reproduction. A research sponsorship for a second Canadian on the front. project has been initiated to examine year. This is a positive Rick Belt of Golden Acres the problem. The CHC is concerned indication that we are on Honey did the packing and that lack of treatment and no plan for the right track. Membership shipping and we thank him extensive inspections may affect our fees account for half our for his assistance. The honey national position on importation of funding and in order to continue samples were given out in return for a honey bees. doing the important activities needed completed questionnaire on US honey for our industry we are seeking more market preferences. Annual General Meeting sponsors support for the coming year. The CHC participated with the The CHC also prepared a new American Beekeepers Federation at Save our Bees has been slowly pamphlet with funding assistance from a joint North American Beekeepers gaining momentum. Donations are the Agricultural Marketing Program, convention in Orlando Florida. It was being sought through our website that gives information on honey for well attended by beekeepers from www.saveourbees.ca and we have health. It has been translated into Canada and the USA and included a growing group of fans on our Spanish for international markets. We visitors from Mexico, Chile, Australia, Facebook page. handed out hundreds of the pamphlets New Zealand, Bermuda, England, at the trade show in Orlando . A Italy, France, Ghana and the Virgin Membership sample is included in this magazine Islands. The general symposium Under the new structure of CHC we and you can order more from the research presentations were excellent are an organization of organizations. CHC office. with many top name speakers. National organizations with a vested ‘Sideliner’ beekeepers were able to interest in honey bees, in addition We also have a new colourful attend concurrent events for special to the existing provincial beekeeper exhibit (featured on the front cover) interest groups. It was sometimes organizations, are eligible for explaining what CHC does and the difficult to choose which session membership in the Canadian Honey importance of the honey bee industry. to attend as there were so many Council. Applications are subject Pierre the Bear is our mascot and interesting topics. to review by the CHC Membership he has made appearances at several Committee. Those associations that shows this year in SK, ON and AB. The ABF and the AHPA have agreed meet established criteria are then He was unable to attend the North to meet concurrently in Galveston considered for approval by the Board American Beekeepers Conference Texas, 4-8 January 2011 and the of Directors. because of new TSA restrictions for CHC has been invited. Given that travelers to the USA. the Mexican National Beekeepers Promotion Organization has committed to attend, CHC is currently finishing one Projects the CHC board is giving the idea of an project on marketing “pure honey All the projects undertaken by even bigger North American meeting 100% Canadian” at the North CHC have now ended. In the past to be held every 3 years some serious American Beekeeping trade show and we have received assistance from consideration. developing a Long Term International Agriculture Agri-Food Canada to Strategy (LTIS). This project which plan and implement a restructure was partially funded by Agriculture of our organization, to determine Agri-Food Canada allowed CHC the strategies for hive health, queen to have a presence at the Orlando bee importation protocols, to get convention where producer, packers, consensus on honey labeling, to importers and exporters were able to develop a long term international see and taste our quality product. strategy and to develop a C-BISQT Executive members of the National manual for on farm food safety. The Organisation of Mexican Beekeepers The trade show booth featured five board has decided to limit projects in Delegation at the North American types of honey- clover, buckwheat, the future so that the CHC can focus Beekeeping Convention blueberry, creamed canola and on resolving resolutions brought to our Photo: Geoff Todd HiveLights February 2010 3 2010 Directors Canadian Honey Council CAPA Outstanding Service Award: Doug McRory Conseil Canadien de Miel Chair Director Corey Bacon Dan Walker Saskatchewan Beekeepers Association Ontario Beekeepers Association B’s Bee Ranch 9327 Scotchmere Dr Box 84 Strathroy ON N7G 3H3 Kinistino SK S0J 1H0 ph 519-245-5361 ph. 306-864-3774 fax 306-864-3260 [email protected] [email protected] Director Vice Chair Bruce Podolsky
Recommended publications
  • Keeping Bees in the City?
    KEEPING BEES IN THE CITY? DISAPPEARING BEES AND THE EXPLOSION OF URBAN AGRICULTURE INSPIRE URBANITES TO KEEP HONEYBEES: WHY CITY LEADERS SHOULD CARE AND WHAT THEY SHOULD DO ABOUT IT Kathryn A. Peters* I. Introduction .......................................................................................... 598 II. The Life of Honeybees ........................................................................ 600 A. Life in the Hive ............................................................................... 600 B. Honeybees in Commercial Agriculture .......................................... 604 C. Honeybees in Urban Agriculture ................................................... 610 III. The Disappearance of the Bees ............................................................ 614 A. Honeybee Health Pre-Colony Collapse ......................................... 615 B. Mad Bee Disease ............................................................................ 616 C. The Emergence of Colony Collapse Disorder ................................ 619 D. Possible Causes of Colony Collapse Disorder ............................... 621 E. Pesticides and Colony Collapse Disorder....................................... 624 F. The Role of Federal Pesticide Regulation ...................................... 628 IV. Keeping Bees in the City? ................................................................... 631 A. Municipal Regulation of Urban Beekeeping ................................. 632 B. Case Studies of Beekeeping Ordinances in U.S. Cities ................
    [Show full text]
  • Towards a New Approach to Beekeeping Policy in Urban Ontario
    Towards a New Approach to Beekeeping Policy in Urban Ontario Michelle Berquist Alyssa Bird M. George Dean R. Brandon Law Sean Lee Harleen Panesar E_monk M.Sc. Planning Workshop University of Toronto At the request of Sustain Ontario Executive Summary Urban agriculture and food production in cities has recently experienced a huge growth in interest. In response to concerns about the safety and sustainability of our existing food systems, many people in cities are looking for ways to produce more of the food they eat within the city itself. Part of this trend is a growing interest in urban beekeeping. Advocates of urban beekeeping argue that it can be a safe and healthy practice with a number of environmental, economic, and social benefits, for practitioners and cities alike. While many municipalities in North America have taken steps to legalize and regulate urban beekeeping, existing legislation in Ontario largely prohibits keeping hives in cities. With the existence of a number of high profile beekeeping initiatives in Ontario cities, and the growing visibility of urban beekeepers, the gap between the regulatory framework for beekeeping in the province and actual practice continues to grow. It is time to reconsider our approach to urban beekeeping in Ontario. In Ontario, beekeeping is regulated by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Farms, and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). OMAFRA does not currently address urban beekeeping as a separate practice and maintains a uniform set of regulations for both urban and rural hives. Crucially, the Ontario Bees Act (1990) requires that all hives be kept further than 30m from the property line of the lot where they are kept.
    [Show full text]
  • REPORT for ACTION Update: Pollinator Protection Strategy
    PE19.3 REPORT FOR ACTION Update: Pollinator Protection Strategy Date: April 19, 2017 To: Parks and Environment Committee From: Chief Corporate Officer Wards: All SUMMARY This report provides an update on the development of a Pollinator Protection Strategy for the City of Toronto, and the creation of best practices for native bee and butterfly conservation. It also responds to the request to investigate the City of Edmonton's Beekeeping Program and comment on its applicability to Toronto. The goal of the Pollinator Protection Strategy is to identify additional actions that the City and community can take to create and enhance habitat for pollinators. The draft strategy identifies six key priorities, and proposes a series of actions for each priority. The primary focus of Toronto's strategy is the protection of native bees and butterflies. However, the majority of the actions designed to support native bees and butterflies, will also benefit all pollinators, including non-native honey bees. Toronto is home to a wide range of pollinators, including over 360 species of bees and 112 species of butterflies. Recognizing that pollinators are a key component of a sustainable city, Toronto's vision is to have healthy pollinator populations that support resilient ecosystems and contribute to a rich urban biodiversity. Pollinators are under increasing stress due to a number of factors and, as a result, some species are in decline. In recent years, significant media attention on the declining health of honey bees and the economic losses experienced by beekeepers, has taken the focus off the more ecologically-concerning decline of native bees.
    [Show full text]
  • Beekeeping In, Of, Or for the City?
    BEEKEEPING IN, OF, OR FOR THE CITY?A SOCIOECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON URBAN APICULTURE APREPRINT Douglas B. Sponsler ∗ Department of Botany Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University 1900 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy, Philadelphia, PA 19103, United States [email protected] Eve Z. Bratman Department of Earth & Environment Franklin & Marshall College 415 Harrisburg Ave., Lancaster, PA 17603, United States August 31, 2020 ABSTRACT The term “urban beekeeping” has come to connote a host meanings — sociopolitical, commercial, ecological, personal — beyond the mere description of where bees and beekeepers happen to coincide. Yet these meanings are seldom articulated explicitly and seldom brought into critical engagement with the relevant fields of urban ecology and political ecology. Beginning with a brief account of the history of urban beekeeping in the United States, we draw upon urban ecological theory to construct a conceptual model for classifying urban beekeeping in terms of socioecological integration and socioecological activism. In our model, beekeeping in the city describes the mere importation of the traditionally rural practice of beekeeping into urban spaces for the private reasons of the individual beekeeper, while beekeeping of the city describes beekeeping that is consciously tailored to the urban context, often accompanied by (semi)professionalization of beekeepers and the formation of local expert communities (i.e. beekeeping associations). Beekeeping for the city describes a shift in mindset in which beekeeping is directed to civic ends beyond the boundaries of the beekeeping community per se. Using this model, we identify and discuss specific socioecological assets and liabilities of urban beekeeping, and how these relate to the form of urban beekeeping practiced.
    [Show full text]
  • Pollinator People: an Ethnography of Bees, Bee Advocates and Possibilities for Multispecies Commoning in Toronto and London, ON
    Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 4-15-2021 2:00 PM Pollinator People: an ethnography of bees, bee advocates and possibilities for multispecies commoning in Toronto and London, ON Rebecca A. Ellis, The University of Western Ontario Supervisor: Weis, Tony, The University of Western Ontario A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Geography © Rebecca A. Ellis 2021 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Human Geography Commons Recommended Citation Ellis, Rebecca A., "Pollinator People: an ethnography of bees, bee advocates and possibilities for multispecies commoning in Toronto and London, ON" (2021). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 7796. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7796 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract There is growing scientific evidence showing that many important pollinator species are in decline around the world. Bees are the most important pollinators in many parts of the world, and the combination of population declines in wild bees and widespread health problems among domesticated honey bees have potentially devastating impacts on both ecosystem health and agricultural prospects. Some scientists, native bee advocates, and beekeepers argue that cities can provide a refuge for bees from pesticide-laden rural landscapes, which has contributed to an increase in urban, hobbyist beekeeping and pollinator gardening.
    [Show full text]
  • Bee Friendly: a Planting Guide for European Honeybees and Australian Native Pollinators
    Bee Friendly A planting guide for European honeybees and Australian native pollinators by Mark Leech From the backyard to the farm, the time to plant is now! Front and back cover photo: honeybee foraging on zinnia Photo: Kathy Keatley Garvey Bee Friendly A planting guide for European honeybees and Australian native pollinators by Mark Leech i Acacia acuminata © 2012 Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation All rights reserved. ISBN 978 1 74254 369 7 ISSN 1440-6845 Bee Friendly: a planting guide for European honeybees and Australian native pollinators Publication no. 12/014 Project no. PRJ-005179 The information contained in this publication is intended for general use to assist public knowledge and discussion and to help improve the development of sustainable regions. You must not rely on any information contained in this publication without taking specialist advice relevant to your particular circumstances. While reasonable care has been taken in preparing this publication to ensure that information is true and correct, the Commonwealth of Australia gives no assurance as to the accuracy of any information in this publication. The Commonwealth of Australia, the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation and the authors or contributors expressly disclaim, to the maximum extent permitted by law, all responsibility and liability to any person arising directly or indirectly from any act or omission, or for any consequences of any such act or omission made in reliance on the contents of this publication, whether or not caused by any negligence on the part of the Commonwealth of Australia, RIRDC, the authors or contributors. The Commonwealth of Australia does not necessarily endorse the views in this publication.
    [Show full text]
  • Urban Agriculture and Backyard Beekeeping Amended November 2018
    Urban Agriculture and Backyard Beekeeping Amended November 2018 A Blueprint Developed by the Cass Clay Food Partners Backyard Beekeeping This issue brief will provide background information related to urban beekeeping, and address the common concerns and benefits from a health, environment, social, and economic standpoint. The brief will also address how each concern can be remedied through ordinance language and education. Appendices have been provided to share how regional jurisdictions are addressing backyard beekeeping, example policy language from other jurisdictions, and educational material on bee stings. Background In 2014, the USDA issued a report declaring we are in a “critical time for efforts” to support our honey bee populations, since these populations have been in decline for decades. The bee colonies in the U.S have decreased from 6 million in 1947 to 2.5 million today.1 No one knows the reason for the sharp decline, although some suspect colony collapse disorder (CCD) caused by a combination of environmental stressors such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, and pesticides.2 Beekeepers and citizens are concerned about colony collapse since bees are responsible for up to one- third of the food eaten by U.S. consumers.3 With concerns about CCD, encouraging new research suggests that bees are thriving in urban environments due to the diversity of plants in urban areas compared to farmland, where much of it consist of large swaths of a single crop (known as monocropping).4 The popularity of urban beekeeping has grown rapidly, and in the past few years, cities such as Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Duluth, MN have begun issuing permits for backyard hives.
    [Show full text]
  • Garden Pollinators and the Potential for Ecosystem Service Flow to Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture
    sustainability Article Garden Pollinators and the Potential for Ecosystem Service Flow to Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Gail Ann Langellotto 1,* ID , Andony Melathopoulos 1, Isabella Messer 1, Aaron Anderson 1, Nathan McClintock 2 ID and Lucas Costner 1 1 Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA; [email protected] (A.M.); [email protected] (I.M.); [email protected] (A.A.); [email protected] (L.C.) 2 Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97207, USA; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +1-541-737-5175 Received: 16 April 2018; Accepted: 14 June 2018; Published: 16 June 2018 Abstract: Hedgerows, flowering strips, and natural areas that are adjacent to agricultural land have been shown to benefit crop production, via the provision of insect pollinators that pollinate crops. However, we do not yet know the extent to which bee habitat in the form of urban gardens might contribute to pollination services in surrounding crops. We explored whether gardens might provision pollinators to adjacent agricultural areas by sampling bees from gardens in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area, and estimating typical foraging distances in the context of commercial- and residential-scale pollination-dependent crops up to 1000 m from garden study sites. We estimate that garden bees could forage outside of the garden in which they were collected, and that when pollination-dependent crops (commercial-scale or residential-scale) are nearby, 30–50% of the garden bee community could potentially provide pollination services to adjacent crops, if urban bees readily cross boundaries and forage among habitat types.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Getting the Scoop on the Chicago Honey Coop Adony Melathopoulos
    Getting the Scoop on the Chicago Honey Coop Adony Melathopoulos, Agriculture Agri-Food Canada, Beaverlodge AB printed in Hivelights 2009 (1):10-12. The Chicago Honey Coop is likely one of the largest and most successful urban beekeeping operations in North America. It operates 80 colonies from one apiary in the economically depressed neighbourhood of North Lawndale. The Coop currently has 37 members. I (AM) caught up with one of the Coop’s founders, Michael Thompson (MT), during a visit to Chicago in November. Michael has been keeping bees for over 40 years and is a prominent figure in the very vibrant urban agriculture movement in Chicago. The Coop is one of a number of success stories within that movement; it exists as an independent business that operates without grants, while at the same tackling pressing urban social issues such as food security, unemployment and agricultural education. Part 1. The Coop and it Operations AM: How did the Chicago Honey Coop come into existence? COOP: In the winter of 2003 three beekeepers got together and decided to kick around the idea of a co-operative. It started the summer before at a farmers market when I met a beekeeper (Tim Brown) selling his honey. The next day I called Stephanie Arnett, a third beekeeper, and said: “you, Tim and I might want to meet together this winter”. So we did and we decided that we had some shared goals. There were three goals in fact. Firstly it was to create a business that could support itself. Number two was to produce a delicious healthy product that you could hold in your hand.
    [Show full text]
  • Beekeeping for Poverty Alleviation and Livelihood Security Vol
    Rakesh Kumar Gupta · Wim Reybroeck Johan W. van Veen · Anuradha Gupta Editors Beekeeping for Poverty Alleviation and Livelihood Security Vol. 1: Technological Aspects of Beekeeping Beekeeping for Poverty Alleviation and Livelihood Security Rakesh Kumar Gupta • Wim Reybroeck Johan W. van Veen • Anuradha Gupta Editors Beekeeping for Poverty Alleviation and Livelihood Security Vol. 1: Technological Aspects of Beekeeping Editors Rakesh Kumar Gupta Wim Reybroeck Division of Entomology Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Research (ILVO) Sciences and Technology of Jammu Technology and Food Science Unit Chatha, Jammu (J&K) , India Melle , Belgium Johan W. van Veen Anuradha Gupta Centro de Investigaciones Apícolas Government of J&K Tropicales Jammu , India Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica Heredia , Costa Rica ISBN 978-94-017-9198-4 ISBN 978-94-017-9199-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-9199-1 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London Library of Congress Control Number: 2014948789 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
    [Show full text]
  • Wild Bees and Urban Agriculture: Assessing Pollinator Supply and Demand Across Urban Landscapes
    Urban Ecosystems https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-019-0826-6 Wild bees and urban agriculture: assessing pollinator supply and demand across urban landscapes Chang Zhao1 & Heather A. Sander1 & Stephen D. Hendrix2 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Growing interest in urban agriculture has increased demand for pollination services. Most studies map pollination supply broadly, and do not consider the impacts of fine-scale urban land-use practices on the dynamics of pollination delivery, leaving a critical gap in our understanding of the pollinator supply-demand balance in urban landscapes. This study demonstrates a spatially- explicit framework, using Iowa City, IA (USA) as the case study region, for assessing the capacity of urban ecosystems to produce pollinator services in support of demand from urban agriculture. We estimate pollinator supply using the InVEST pollination model with detailed land-cover data produced through field survey and Bayesian hierarchical analysis, and we validate modeling results with bee abundance and richness data. We map social demand for pollinators using a kernel density estimation of urban agricultural sites and evaluate supply-demand budgets through spatial overlay analysis. Our results show that incorporating high-thematic-resolution urban land-use data substantially improves the performance of pollination supply model- ing. Pollinator supply meets demand in 72% of the city. Surpluses occur in natural areas and heavily-vegetated, established residential neighborhoods, whereas deficits occur in resource-poor lawns. Our mapping framework stresses the key role of humans in modifying resource availability and pollinator services, and demonstrates the effectiveness of using disaggregated socio-economic data in urban land-cover classification for predicting pollinator supply.
    [Show full text]
  • Mary Kosut & Lisa Jean Moore Bees Making
    H U M a N I M A L I A 5:2 Mary Kosut & Lisa Jean Moore Bees Making Art: Insect Aesthetics and the Ecological Moment Humans are drawn to bees. Unlike most familiar, flying insects such as mosquitoes or houseflies — those pests we impulsively dodge or swat — bees are likely to give us pause. Their appearance, buzz, wax, honey, and the collective productivity of the colony itself, generates reverence and awe, even with the threat of a sting. It is not surprising that poets and visual artists are attracted to both the architecture of the hive and the aesthetics of their labor (Steiner; Brown). Honeybees are uncommon insects. Human interest in bees is documented across cultural contexts, from references in the Bible and Koran to images of bees in engravings, woodcuts, illustrations and other media. Even the first humans’ visually depicted bees — representations of bees and ancient “honey hunters” can be found in numerous petroglyphs drawn on cave walls throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia (Crane). 1 Bees have been a part of visual culture since the prehistoric era, but current depictions are often framed by growing cultural concern surrounding the global threat of a “bee apocalypse” that has been widely publicized. 2 Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD, the elusive syndrome responsible for the mysterious disappearance and death of honeybee colonies has transformed the bee into a cause and a symbol of ecological frailty (Moore and Kosut). Although agricultural records substantiate that bee colonies have dwindled throughout the last century, professional beekeepers, entomologists, and government scientists, agree that the current behavior of bees is unique, alarming, and potentially catastrophic.
    [Show full text]