what's the buzz?

So, this past week- Friday, June 5th- I went out to water and weed the garden and realized that there were quite a large number of honey bees stopping in. Since the tassels and silk are appearing on more and more of the stalks, I assumed that bees help pollinate corn and just observed as they moved from tassel to tassel quickly working.

Yet, upon some research, i've found that corn is like a grass or grain crop, which only needs the wind to pollinate and that "many wind pollinated flowers such as maple, oak, hickory, corn, and ragweed are visited by bees collecting pollen."
So, although they are not vital to the pollination of the corn, they can assist. I also learned that we should feel good about bees visiting our 3-sister rows because honey bees are disappearing off the face of this Earth more rapidly than ever before- a phenomenon that really took effect in 2006 that has been dubbed colony collapse disorder .

A Cosmos Magazine article from 2007 reads:

"In hives hit by CCD, adult workers simply fly away and disappear, leaving a small cluster of workers and the hive's young to fend for themselves. Adding to the mystery, nearby predators, such as the wax moth, are refraining from moving in to pilfer honey and other hive contents from the abandoned hives; in CCD-affected hives the honey remains untouched.

The symptoms are baffling, but one of the emerging hypotheses is that the scourge is underpinned by a collapse of the bees' immune systems. Stressed out by cross-country truck journeys and drought, attacked by viruses and introduced parasites, or whacked out by harmful new pesticides, some researchers believe the bees' natural defences may have simply given way. This opens the door to a host of problems that the bees can normally suppress."

So, lucky and welcoming is how we feel toward the honey bees. Visitors like this remind me why we've chosen to stay organic in our garden. So that natural friends- that need us just as much as we need them- can co-exist and try to reach a balance in the crazy world around them - and have a safe space to explore that possibility.

Centeotl - Mexica (Aztec) God of Maize

Visit Pollinator.org for more info on pollination and what is being done to save pollinators!