Corinne's Project Site for Terroir/Meroir

A: Natural history/regen ag research

This quarter I profiled five Northwest native kinds of bees, the Mason bees (Osmia), Bumble bees (Bombus), Leafcutter bees (Megachile), Sweat bees (family Halictidae), and Mining bees (Andrenidae). Within each category is surprising diversity. “Bees” encompasses over 4,000 insect species from North America alone, and over 20,000 worldwide (Wilson-Rich 2014). They can be tiny enough that you don’t notice them when you’re admiring a flower, or big enough that they make a loud tap when they bump into your window. They can be blue, green, yellow, black, and/or orange. They might forage in the spring or summer or even fall. Some make honey, some don’t. Some use a village to raise their young, and some have single-parent households. Wild bees in the Pacific Northwest need to be able to tolerate rain and cool temperatures. 

My favorite bees fall under the category of leafcutters, who often use flower petals and leaves to create colorful packages for their young. These artists make their brood cells in hollow stems, holes, or man-made tubes. 

Forage Phenology sprdsht

Regenerative agriculture

Certifications:

• Bee Better
• Bee Friendly Farming

Bees in agroforestry

According to the USDA (Black 2006), “agroforestry practices can increase the overall diversity of plants and physical structure in a landscape and, as a result, provide habitat for native pollinators.” Riparian buffer zones and windbreaks can be corridors connecting natural landscapes through an agricultural matrix. Trees and shrubs in an agroforestry system can provide stable nesting sites close to crops. Farmers should take care to design their system specifically for local beneficial insects, because what works in Florida might not work in Washington.

B: Habitat assessment/improvements

Week 9 farm journal 

Tuesday 5/25. Inspected all the mason bee houses on the farm (3 sites) and found most holes full, which is good news. This means no cleaning until fall. 

At home I cut some bamboo tubes and rolled paper tubes pencil-width about 6-7” long. Weeded and prepped another section of the plot. 

Thursday 5/27. It was rainy. I placed some tubes into the yellow bee house. They have the date marked on them and are easy to unroll for folks (or maybe me) to check on them in the winter, although it’s probably too late in the year for anything to nest in there. 

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Transplanted some Stachys Hidalgo and bulb flowers Iris, Scilla, and Chionodoxa that my classmate brought. Also moved some mullein to a permanent spot and admired some poppies that just bloomed. 

I also added a bee bath on the weekend when I came by to water. I found it at the thrift store and thought it was perfect because it looks like a flower. 

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Finished report

Native bee habitat at TESC organic farm

C: Film and media analysis

My favorite resources this quarter

Our Native Bees by Paige Embry is delightful to read. It’s filled with beautiful photography of various species. Embry joins scientists hunting the endangered Bombus franklini, participates in the Great Sunflower Project, visits landowners implementing bee-friendly systems, and more.  They found that the study of North American bees is still in its youth. We need much more research to accurately track what they eat, which species are endangered or thriving, and how they respond to environmental changes like fire and climate change. It’s important that citizens get involved to help gather data. In the meantime, Embry advises that gardeners let things get a little wild; leave bare ground and brush, plant clover in your lawn. 

PolliNation: a Pollinator Health Podcast is a great hub for hearing from professionals; researchers, entomologists, farmers, beekeepers etc. It gives due attention to native bees, honey bees, and other pollinators. Episode 148: John Ascher – 10 Oregon Bees is full of advice on how to get involved as a citizen scientist collecting quality data via iNaturalist. 

The Pollinators was my favorite film. It had great cinematography and interviewed an array of people. Often pop science films about agriculture are loaded with scary imagery and pressure to have a certain take-away. This one did not.

D: Tasting research

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are the “gigantic migrant workforce that supplies us with a good portion of our favorite foods.” (Embry 2018) They can also make honey, which is in salad dressings, desserts, savory-sweet glazes, beverages, and other dishes in culinary traditions all over the world. 

I was curious to learn about honey because of a sensory experience I had that befuddled me. I’ve always heard that honey is too high in sugar and low in water to “go bad”, yet two bottles of honey I bought at the supermarket last year seemed spoiled, with a funky smell that told me not to eat it. While my distrust of large companies tells me I was right not to eat it, everything I’ve read this quarter makes me think that smell was probably just the kind of flower the nectar came from. Some flowers smell weird to us. Honey cannot spoil unless adulterated by water. 

E: Sensory analysis

Plans for honey tasting in fall

Sarah asked me to lead a honey tasting in the fall. I plan to share an overview on the biology of how honey is made, the agricultural practices involved, and how it’s processed. Then we’ll taste some honey that might surprise people; molasses-y buckwheat, something fruity like orange, something bready like alfalfa, and one or two “wildflower” honeys. We’ll use the flavor wheel, terminology, and evaluation methodology from The Honey Connoisseur to record our experiences, and share out. I will have them recall any memories that come up and imagine what they could use those honeys for. 

F: Special events

I wish I had attended more events, but I was super focused on Bees and Agroforestry. The ecologies of power workshop was definitely the most memorable.

G: Cooking

My favorite thing to make with honey was salad dressing. I even used mead one time in place of wine or vinegar. It adds a fruity sweetness, and pairs well with pretty much any fixins except tomato. 

Honey flavor is diverse, a reflection of where the bees migrated to that year, what the weather was like, and what they ate. You can cook the same recipe with honey of the same floral origin year after year and get a different outcome each time. I think that diversity is a lot of fun.

H: References

1. Embry, Paige. (2018). Our native bees: North America’s endangered pollinators and the fight to save them. Portland, OR. Timber press
2. Black, S. H. Vaughan, M. (August 2006). Agroforestry: Sustaining Native Bee Habitat For Crop Pollination Agroforestry notes, 32. Link
3. Wilson-Rich, N. (2014). The bee: a natural history. Sussex, UK: Princeton University Press

8a. Natural history research

Notable native bees of other parts of North America

Squash bees (tribe Eucerini; genera Peponapis and Xenoglossa)

• Nearly as essential to squash as squash is to them (Moisset, 2010)

Cellophane bees (family Colletidae)

• Line their nests with secretions like cellophane wrap (Moisset, 2010)

Cuckoo bees (Apidae subfamily Nomadinae)

• A completely parasitic group of bees (Moisset, 2010)

Small carpenter bees (Ceratina)

• Nectar-robbers (Embry 2018)

Unusual American bees

Arctic bumble bee (Bombus polaris)

• It’s able to regulate its body temperature much better than most bees, and is one of two Bombus bee species north of the Arctic circle (the other being it’s parasite) (Heinrich 1940).

Extinct Apis nearctica

• A fossil of this species was found in Nevada, the only pre-colombian American bee of the genus Apis (Embry 2018)

Melipona spp. 

• A group of stingless bees which make honey, though about 1/20 of that which Apis mellifera produces. Melipona beecheii was managed by Mayan people. (Embry 2018)

8b. Assessment and improvements

On Monday 5/17 Beth gave me a tour of the farm to answer questions I had related to assessing the pollinator habitat. I also offered to replace the tubes in the mason bee house, as they are super old. I’ll have to figure out how to replace them without disturbing any existing nests.

Bee built says to use either paper tubes, breathable naturally occurring reeds, corrugated wood slats or cardboard. Use a variety of sizes. The best way to manage them is to harvest and clean the cocoons (in water) in the fall after larvae have grown into adults and cocooned themselves, and then store them in a fridge until spring temperatures reach 50. At that point you can place them outside (in any container under shelter like an awning) and wait for them to emerge.

Tuesday 5/18. Weeding, transplanting, accompanied by a cute red bird who enjoyed the worms I was exposing.

Thursday 5/20. More weeding, more transplanting, a little time helping with the Caleb-led project, and got bamboo sticks from Ashley.

8c. Film and media

I’ve now read most of “Our Native Bees” by Paige Embry. The book is packed with west-coast focused information about native bees and agriculture with personal anecdotes mixed in. I wish I had found it sooner. It has a similar tone and journalistic style to Michael Pollan. In the first half of the book the author discusses the importance of native bees in agriculture and introduces some west coast pollinators, and then discusses the threats facing these bees and the role of farmers and gardeners in conservation.

Here’s some awesome entomologists and bee enthusiasts on TikTok that I wanted to share:

• https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeWwtn6r/
• https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeWwXu7d/

Bees and fire

I listened to OSU’s PolliNation podcast episode 160 with Jim Cane: Bees and fire to learn more about a topic touched on in Paige Embry’s Our Native Bees. The guest, Jim Cane, former USDA bee lab scientist, shared a california-focused perspective on the effects of fire on native bees. The answer is much more complicated than you might expect. Stem-nesting bees and late-season fliers are likely affected the most by fire. Ground nesting bees seem to be unaffected, even those which nest very close to the surface. Jim thinks this is likely because most bees nest in burrows or holes in early succession habitat where heat isn’t trapped by dense vegetation. In addition, most bees are nested by late summer/fall when wildfires happen.

“Frank points to an Andrena mining bee sitting quietly on the blackened earth. He explains that she’s sitting there because, unlike a bumble bee queen, she can’t control her internal temperature and with her small size she loses heat fast.”

Paige Embry, Our Native Bees

Things like huckleberry and other shrubs, which don’t bloom densely when shaded, actually benefit from fires every decade. Fires can even maintain meadows that provide high quality habitat to bees and other wildlife. They discuss this in minutes 18:30-21:00. 

There is still much research needed on this topic.

8f. Special events

Visited the food and ag path party

8g. Cooking

To celebrate Palestinian people I wanted to cook something. I googled recipes and recognized many of them as meals I’ve eaten when visiting family in Israel. It was interesting to take a second glance at these foods within a political context. As a child I thought that Israel had been there forever, because my step-grandparents made a point of showing us all the old structures that they said were built by their ancestors. In hindsight I think I remember tension on the topic between my young step-mother and her parents. Afterwards we would go to a Palestinian restaurant. The irony. 

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8h.

1. Moisset, B. (2010, November 26). Native bees of north america. BugGuide. Retrieved May 20, 2021, from URL
2. Embry, Paige. (2018). Our native bees: North America’s endangered pollinators and the fight to save them. Portland, OR. Timber press
3. Heinrich, Bernd. (1940). Bumble bee economics. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press

A: Natural history/regen ag research: mining bees, wood-nesting habitat

Mining bees of North America (Family Andrenidae)

Other facts:

• No built in thermal regulation, so they bask in the sun or on dark stones or burned areas. 
• Don’t sting (Embry 2018)

Morphology: 

• Medium-sized
• Relatively short-tongued
• Reddish gold hairs
• Long abdomens
• Skinny bods (Britannica 2018)
• Ranges between 8-17 mm
• Broad velvety faces (facial fovea)
• Long scopal hairs on the hind leg (Andrena 2021)

Range: 

• Species native to the Columbia River Basin include Andrena aculeata (Shepherd 2004)
• As a genus, Andrena is worldwide in distribution. There are around 1300 species. (Andrena 2021)

Life cycle: 

• One or two generations per year depending on sp (Britannica 2018)
• Females dig nests (Embry 2018)
• Usually like sandy soil and shrub cover. 
• Emerge in spring, mate, and then dig burrows, forage, lay eggs in cells. (Andrena 2021)

Nesting habits:

• Solitary, but often aggregated 
• Dig ground tunnels in which cells are individual branches from a main tunnel
• Stocks with pollen balls and nectar (Britannica 2018)
• 6-7 inches deep 
• A minority of species will sometimes share a “front door” and dig lateral tunnels for their individual nests 
• Commonly nest in lawns (Embry 2018)

Forage plants:

• Use flight muscles to buzz-pollinate plants like blueberry and tomato 
• Clover (Embry 2018)
• Andrena fragilis, A. integra, A. platyparia are dogwood pollen specialists (Gill 2018)
• Apples (Wheeler 2016)
• Rose family
• Brassica family (Wood and Roberts 2017)

Phenology: 

• Emerge in early spring (Wheeler 2016)

Agricultural significance: 

Andrena bees can be great allies in an orchard if the trees are suitable for short-tongued bees. Apples are one example. Because the ground is not tilled, they can make homes very close to the trees. They deposit 2 to 3 times more pollen than honey bees (Wheeler 2016). 

Pests and disease:

• Nomada parasitic bees (Embry 2018)

Species spotlight:

Andrena aculeata, one of our native mining bees, is active May to August. It forages on a range of species (indicated by it’s range) and has been recorded in subalpine fir and spruce forests, as well as agricultural landscapes (Shepherd 2004).

Wood nesting habitat

B: Habitat assessment/improvements:

Did not attend Tuesday. 

Planting in the garden: 

• Echinacea
• Purple aster
• Yarrow (native)
• Calendula
• Borage
• Strawflower

Planted stuff on thursday, also took down observations for wood nesting habitat section. I got strawflower and purple aster transplants in the ground as well as moved some oregano and columbine to their permanent home with space to spread.

The community gardener with the plot next door wants to rehome the chives, and Ashley plans on using the rest of the bed I’m working on to plant sunflower (great late-summer forage for bees!).

Assessment: wood nesting habitat

Hollow and pithy plants at the farm:

• Nootka rose
• Elderberry
• Currant
• Raspberry
• Salmonberry (is this really hollow? check)

There is also an abundance of dead wood in the forest surrounding the farm, and various stumps within the borders.

C: Film and media analysis: the pollinators film notes

Starting at minutes 9:30 Susan E. Kegley, Phd, says that honey bees are integral to the system which produces cheap food. This means the honey bees are in an area that’s treated with pesticides, and also monocropped with only one type of flowering plant in usually a large area, leaving few wildflowers. The Film makers pan over an almond orchard which extends to the horizon. “Once the crop has bloomed, there’s nothing there for the bees to eat”, Susan says. They explain that this is why the honey bees have to move around. “The managed honey bees have the beekeeper helping them survive…the native pollinators are in deep trouble because they can’t move away from agriculture.” Here the filmmakers use some beautiful close ups of bumble bees and small bees foraging on wildflowers.

I think this really captures the difference between “saving” the honey bees and “saving” the wild/ native pollinators. Both are at this point integral to our food systems, but wild bees represent ecological realities much farther outside human control than domesticated bees. Domesticated bees can be studied closely, managed individually, their issues bandaid-ed by technology or small changes for some time. To conserve native pollinators, we have to make fundamental changes to land management.

D: Tasting research: jun, or honey kombucha

What is Jun?

The origins of Jun are not known, though Sandor Katz in their book The Art of Fermentation infers that it’s probably just a recent spin on Kombucha. Kombucha is likely from China (LaGory and Katz 2017). Jun is brewed with green tea and honey, using a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) (Codekas 2015). 

Health benefits of Jun?

There is no specific research on Jun itself, but green tea and honey have health promoting qualities. Green tea is high in antioxidants, vitamin C, theanine, γ-aminobutyric acid, and caffeine. Also, the tea catechin EGCG is considered to be associated with “anti-cancer, anti-obesity, anti-atherosclerotic, anti-diabetic, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-dental caries effects” (Suzuki et al 2012). 

The effects of honey on human health vary with environmental factors and floral origin (terroir if you will). It contains water, fructose, and glucose. All honey has antibacterial properties but this dilutes when met with bodily fluid (Ellis 2014, Albaridi 2019). It may also include various quantities and kinds of complex sugars, minerals, vitamins, proteins, phytochemicals and beneficial enzymes (Ellis 2014). Honey also contains the enzyme glucose oxidase which can sometimes break down glucose into hydrogen peroxide, but not if heated (Ellis 2014). Honey has been used topically or on wounds, and when paired with plant medicine can help make compounds bioavailable by breaking the cell walls of the plant (Ellis 2014). 

Sensory analysis of Jun?

I couldn’t find much information on the sensory analysis of Jun specifically, and from what I can tell there is no official sensory analysis of Kombucha outside of individual companies. There are some tasting rooms for Kombucha, such as the Seattle Kombucha Company’s. 

I made a flavor wheel combining the honey flavor and aroma wheel from The Honey Connoisseur, and the tea flavor wheel from Kuan Yin Teas, which was used at the winter 2021 Lunar New Year tea appreciation.

E: Sensory analysis: tasting jun

I only bought one flavor to try. I used the wheel I drew and my own form similar to other sensory analysis forms we’ve used. I sat by the window with a glass of water and took down observations while I tasted. 

F: Special events: Ecologies of Power talk

Bam’s talk was surprisingly therapeutic. I’m not sure what I expected, but I really enjoyed sharing a space with people who like understanding themselves and others through ecological metaphors. Someone contributed the idea that capitalism tries to make us rush all the time, but some of us are slugs or even moss.

G: Cooking

With my leftover mead, I made a sweet and tart dressing with whatever I could find, which ended up being:

• 1 tsp mead
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp olive oil
• Garlic 
• Salt
• Pepper
• More honey to taste

I tossed it on some crisp, fresh, bitter greens grown by classmates at the community gardens. I added honey goat cheese and carrot slices. My partner and I loved it. 

I also found an awesome book to read that is not a foodoir exactly, but is about North American bees and the authors journey learning to appreciate what they do, Our Native Bees by Paige Embry. So mad I didn’t find this book sooner, but I can read it before the quarter ends. Their communication style is inspiring to me. The voice of their writing is friendly and authentic, but they get a lot of information across.

A couple of quotes I enjoyed:

“Tomatoes require a special kind of pollination called buzz pollination, where a bee holds onto a flower and vibrates certain muscles that shake the pollen right out of the plant. Honey bees don’t know how to do it, but certain native bees do. I was appalled. How could I, a serious gardener for many years, not have learned that it takes a native bee—not a European import—to properly pollinate a tomato?” 

“Pollen is rich in proteins, amino acids, and fats, with some carbs thrown in as well. It’s great baby food. Pollen also happens to be the flower’s equivalent of sperm, setting up a fine opportunity for a mutually beneficial relationship.” 

Plants and bees teach us reciprocity. Bees are evolved to pollinate flowers, and do little else, with some outliers with bad manners who “break in” to flowers. Bee-pollinated plants evolved flowers perfectly suited for bees’ bodies. The right bees’ bodies, like tomato making himself enticing to the (also American native) buzz-pollinators. Both insect and flower give a gift to the other, who uses it to reproduce and multiply the value of that gift, while feeding the rest of their ecological community too. Each generation continues the relationship. 

H: References

2. Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2018, February 2). Mining bee. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/animal/mining-bee

3. Embry, Paige. (2018). Our native bees: North America’s endangered pollinators and the fight to save them. Portland, OR. Timber press

4. Gill, K. (2018, May 15). From the field: trees for bees. Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. https://xerces.org/blog/from-the-field-trees-for-bees

5. Wheeler, J. (2016, October 7). Celebrate apples by celebrating their pollinators. Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. https://xerces.org/blog/celebrate-apples-by-celebrating-their-pollinators

6. Shepherd, M. (2004, November 16). Mining bees. Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. https://xerces.org/endangered-species/at-risk-bees/andrena-aculeata 

7. Andrena. (2021, May 12). In Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrena#cite_note-1 

8. Wood, Thomas J.; Roberts, Stuart P. M. (2017). “An assessment of historical and contemporary diet breadth in polylectic Andrena bee species”. Biological Conservation. 215: 72–80. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2017.09.009. ISSN 0006-3207.

9. LaGory, A. Katz, S. E. (2016). The big book of kombucha. North Adams, MA. Storey Publishing, LLC.

10. Katz, S. (2012) The Art of Fermentation. Hartford, VT. Chelsea Green Publishing.

11. Codekas, C. (2015, October 18). How to brew jun kombucha. Grow Forage Cook Ferment. https://www.growforagecookferment.com/how-to-brew-jun-kombucha/

12. Suzuki, Y., Miyoshi, N., & Isemura, M. (2012). Health-promoting effects of green tea. Proceedings of the Japan Academy. Series B, Physical and biological sciences, 88(3), 88–101. https://doi.org/10.2183/pjab.88.88

13. Ellis, H. (2014) Spoonfuls of honey. London, UK. Pavilion Books.

14. Albaridi, N. A. (2019). Antibacterial Potency of Honey. International journal of microbiology, 2019, 2464507. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/2464507

15. Tran, T. Grandvalet, C. Verdier, F. Martin, A. Alexandre, H. Tourdot-Maréchal, R. (2020) Microbiological and technological parameters impacting the chemical composition and sensory quality of kombucha. Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf. 19: 2050– 2070. https://doi.org/10.1111/1541-4337.12574

16. Nesting habitat. Project Dragonfly. https://projectdragonfly.miamioh.edu/great-pollinator-project/management/nesting-habitat/#:~:text=Cavity%20nesters,hydrangea%20from%20year%20to%20year. 

6a. Natural history/regen ag research

Ground nesting habitat

Most North American bees nest in the ground, 70% (Code 2019). Some, including bumble bees, nest in ready-made crevices like rodent burrows, while others such as sweat bees dig their own tiny tunnels. Various species use plant material or secretions to line the walls of their nests, in order to keep out pests, disease, and even excess moisture. Like honey bees, ground-nesting bees lay their eggs in individual cells with provisions of pollen and often nectar. These cells may be constructed in a variety of ways. Most ground nesting bee species are solitary, though some are social. Still others are somewhere in between, either nesting in aggregates or showing a range of behavior depending on circumstances. (PennState 2021) They like sunny, bare, well-drained soil. South facing slopes are best, in which case you should plant some short grass or other sparse cover to prevent erosion. Don’t till this area any time of year. Don’t spray pesticides. (Code 2019)

Native bee spotlight: sweat bees AKA Halictid

These insects are called “sweat bees” because they drink sweat from farmers to obtain salt. (TEDxTalks 2015)

Taxonomy

Family: Halictidae

Distribution

Present in various parts of the world. Species native to Western North America (Wilson-Rich 2014)

Sunflower Sweat Bee (Dieunomia triangulifera)

• Black and brown, 9-15.5 mm, stout bodies
• Commonly found on sunflowers (which I planted in community garden) in agricultural landscapes
• Forage in late summer
• Females only live for 13 days
• Males emerge before females and disperse to mate with emerging females
• Females then work on nesting, foraging, and laying brood (2-6 offspring) 
• Nest in aggregations of 40 nests in “moist, compacted soil in bare open fields, between rows of crops, in field margins, and on roadside verges” (Wilson-Rich 2014)
• All activity happens in August-September

Augochlorella aurata

• Morphology: skinny with wide faces, metallic iridescent green body, golden-white hairs, 5-6 mm
• Forage: Opuntia, Polygonum hydropiperoides, Viburnum rufidulum, Rubus, and Aster (planting next week)
• Life cycle: Two consecutive broods: first is workers that help rear the second brood, which is fertile males and females. They mate in late summer and surviving “queens” (fertile females) overwinter. Sometimes sister “queens” are born who divide tasks. Daughter foragers can become fertile if queen dies early.
• Nesting: “primitively eusocial” (Wilson-Rich 2014) in aggregations in grassy embankments or south-facing slopes. 7 eggs per nest. 
• Phenology: May to November
• Location: grasslands and urban areas, Canada to Mexico, Pacific coast to East lowlands.
• Smallest and most abundant North American sweat bee (MI Dept of Conservation 2015)

Morphology

• Most are skinny, some are more stout (Buckley et al 2011)
• Carry pollen on legs (Buckley et al 2011)
• Black, green, blue, and/or purple (Buckley et al 2011)

Life cycle

• Make pollen balls for babies (TEDxTalks 2015)
• Most overwinter as fertilized females rather than pre-pupae (Buckley et al 2011)

Nesting habits

• Ground nesting (TEDxTalks 2015) or rotten wood (Missouri Department of Conservation 2015)
• In both cases, they dig tunnels (Buckley et al 2011)
• Some are parasitic, stealing others’ nests (Buckley et al 2011)
• Most need exposed soil and nearby forage (Buckley et al 2011)

Forage habits

• Individuals are very generalist, making them not very effective pollinators when diverse resources are available (depends on time of year) (Tepidino)
• Gumweed is popular with sweat bees, which I planted in the garden (Adamson et al 2014)
• Ocean Spray is also known to be visited by sweat bees, which is also growing at the farm (Adamson et al 2014)

Phenology

• Active April through November (see specific species for phenology in PNW) (Buckley et al 2011, Wilson-Rich 2014)

Agricultural significance

• Known to pollinate stone fruit, pomme fruit, alfalfa, and sunflower (Buckley et al 2011)

Social life

• Aggregate in groups of 10-20 individuals (TEDxTalks 2015)
• Females decide who is queen by fighting (submissive becomes infertile) (TEDxTalks 2015)
• Very socially plastic depending on the species and even environment (Buckley et al 2011) which may make them highly adaptable to climate change (Schürch et al 2016)
• Can be solitary, communal, semi-social or eusocial (Buckley et al 2011)
• Queens will sometimes work together to rear young, in which case only one lays eggs that year (MI Dept of Conservation 2015)

What can you do for these agricultural allies?

Follow advice from conservationists on ground-nesting bees in general (summarized above) as well as planting forage that sweat bees like.

6b. Habitat assessment/ improvements

Farm journal

Tuesday 5/4: Caleb cut down the mustard flowers, so I saw far less bees, but still some! Strawberries and onions are flowering. I installed a borage plant, although it’s not doing great. Some of the seeds I planted are coming up. Did lots of noxious weed removal (mustard, alkanet, comfrey, buttercup). Gave some calendula seeds to Alegra.

the new plan with the community garden plot is that I’ll:

1. Remove noxious weeds from at least the fence-side half.
2. Rescue non-invasive things (onion, tulip, lemon balm, strawberry, etc) from the path-side half, and move them to the fence-side half.
3. Label and make paths to create a (potentially temporary) mini pollinator garden.

On Thursday morning 5/6, I walked around the farm to photograph each species of clump-forming grass I saw, as well as note on the map where bunching grasses were abundant, and where there was apparently little ground disturbance. I’ll need to talk to someone next week about mowing and tilling to get a better idea of the habitat for ground-nesting bees.

I also weeded another section of my community garden bed so it is ready for planting or relocating existing plants.

Assessment notes

INSERT photos of grass species, AND ASSESSMENT PAGE

6c and d. Film and media analysis tasting research

I couldn’t find a ton of audio/visual media around mead. I did find The Mead Podcast and a video about Superstition Meadery in Arizona. 

In the Mead Podcast episode 3, The History of Mead, they discuss where mead comes from, why it died out as an art, and why it’s made a come back. Mead is very old because it happens naturally sometimes when the curing process of nectar is disturbed by flooding or uncapping too early. Mead making can be traced back as far as ancient mesopotamia and evidence of it exists in greece, rome, celtic culture, etc.

The reasons it fell out of favor in england specifically (the podcast is recorded there), is because of mead becoming a less desirable, working-class beverage, as well as the introduction of hops and distillation displacing other brewing practices. Honey is a very expensive product to brew with.

From minutes 6:40 to 8 Tom shares what he thinks are the reasons for mead’s revival, which is mostly going on in the U.S. He talks about mead’s appeal to fans of craft brewing. He says, “people are looking for new products that are interesting, well-crafted with a real sense of provenance, and mead fits all those bills. You can get this real sense of terroir and craftsmanship out of a really good mead.”

Sensory analysis of honey and mead is a relatively new thing. The International Honey Commission was established in 1998 to develop standard protocol for analyzing honey for defects and floral origin. While lab testing can determine some of these things, inconsistency in flavor is only detectable by sensory analysis (Piana et al 2004). 

6e. Sensory analysis

I bought a bottle of “Tastes Like Sunshine” mead by local Olympia Axis Meadery, which is described on their website as “the sweetness of clover blossom accentuated by the sweet-tart flavor of Blood Orange.” I’m excited to try it. Axis Meads was started in small batches by Skep & Skein Tavern co-founder Dave Ross, and scaled up when people showed interest. It was the only mead I could find at Bayview Thriftway downtown. 

I’ll be using this tasting wheel from woman-owned Sky River Mead in Redmond, WA. There were various mead lexicons and visual tools available, but this one I chose because it was created for a more casual tasting experience rather than professional analysis. 

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INSERT PHOTOS AND NOTES FROM TASTING

6g. Cooking

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H: References

1. TEDxTalks. (2015, May 16). The secret lives of native bees, Dr. Sandra Rehan, TEDxPiscataquaRiver [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F255KADo0Ao 

2. Tepidino, V. Halictid bees. USDA. Link

3. Adamson, N. L. Borders, B. Cruz, J.K. Jordan, S. F. Gill, K. Hopwood, J. Lee-Mäder, E. Minnerath, A. Vaughan, M. (2014). Pollinator plants: maritime northwest region. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

4. Wilson-Rich, N. (2014). The bee: a natural history. Sussex, UK: Princeton University Press

5. Missouri Department of Conservation. (2015). Sweat bees. Conservation Commission of Missouri. Link

6. Schürch, R., Accleton, C., & Field, J. (2016). Consequences of a warming climate for social organisation in sweat bees. Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology, 70(8), 1131–1139. https://doi-org.evergreen.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s00265-016-2118-y

7. Buckley, K. Nalen, C. Z. Ellis, J. University of Florida. (2011, August). Sweat or Halictid bees. Featured Creatures. http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/bees/halictid_bees.htm

8. PennState College of Agricultural Sciences. (2021). Nesting sites. Department of Entomology. Link

9. Code, A. (2019, June 20). Remember the Ground Nesting Bees when You Make Your Patch of Land Pollinator-Friendly. Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Link

10. Senn, K. Cantu, A. Harris, A. Heymann, H. (2020) Catalyst: Discovery into Practice 4:91-97; DOI: 10.5344/catalyst.2020.20005

11. Piana, M. L. Persano Oddo, L. Bentabol, A. Bruneau, E. Bogdanov, S. Guyot Declerck, C. (2004). Sensory analysis applied to honey: state of the art. Apidologie, 35 (DOI: 10.1051/apido:2004048). https://www.bjcp.org/mead/MHS05.pdf

12. MacKinnon, A., Pojar, J., & Alaback, P. B. (1994). Plants of the Pacific Northwest coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska. Richmond, Wash: Lone Pine Publishing.

5a. Natural history and habitat research

Fun fact: bees find floral resources via olfaction, sometimes by communicating scents between social bees antenna-to-antenna if good food is located. (Wilson-Rich 2014)

Native bee spotlight: leaf cutter bees (Megachile)

Morphology

• 10-20 mm
• Broad heads and enlarged mandibles
• Upturned abdomen (Young et al. 2016)
• Leafcutter bees (Megachile) belong to Megachilidae family with mason bees due to the lack of leg pollen baskets. Pollen collects on abdomen
• About the size of a honey bee
• Mostly black and furry, with a yellow belly
• Use mandibles to cut leaves (6)

Life cycle:

• Emerge in spring, soon mate
• Males die not long after
• Females look for nesting
• Mother makes bee loaves out of nectar, pollen, and saliva (which may contain antifungal and antibacterial elements) mixed together for brood
• She lays an egg on top of a large enough loaf, and wraps it in chewed leaves
• She puts all these bundles of eggs and loaves into the cavity until full, then seals it with an extra wall, and dies. 
• They are so called bc they cut petals and leaves for building cocoons. (6)

Range:

• 29 known native species in Washington
• Arctic-tropical, sea level to 5,000 ft
• 131 species native to US
• deserts, coastal dunes, prairies, shrublands, gardens, and openings in forests.
• Forests with dense canopy are not ideal, lacking in broad leaves for construction
• 28% of north american species are endangered. Causes: 
  • Habitat loss
    • Invasive species dominance
  • Disease
  • Pesticides, particularly systemic (Young et al. 2016)

 Nesting

• Leafcutter bees take well to artificial nests, so are used industrially in agriculture (Wilson-Rich 2014).
• In between stones
• In earthen riverbank substrate
• Like mason bees, females are placed in the back (Young et al. 2016)
• Some form small colonies (semi-social)
• Most are solitary 
• Nest in small wood cavities or in hollow stalks
• Some nest underground
• Pencil wide cavity
• You can make one out of bundles of tubes or drilled holes, like mason bees! (6)

Phenology: 

• Forage and nest in late spring/ early summer (right now!) (Young et al. 2016)

Forage:

• Aster family (Asteraceae)
• Pea family (Fabaceae)
• Late spring and summer blooming
• Specialists:
  • Oenothera spp. visits evening primrose 
  • M. davidsoni specializes in golden eardrops (Ehrendorferia chrysantha) 
• Red clover
• Blueberry
• Alfalfa leafcutting bees, though not native to North America, have proven the potential for leafcutting bees to be very efficient and fill the economic niche of honeybee pollination
  • M. perihirta and M. dentitarsus are native canadian leafcutting bees that work well in cold and pollinate alfalfa also (Young et al. 2016)

Nesting habitat needs:

• Leaves for cutting
• Pithy or hollow stems
• Resin bees, a subgroup of leaf-cutting bees, only nest in holes made in wood by other insects (Young et al. 2016)

Threats or predators:

• Parasites
  • Wasps
  • flies (e.g., Anthrax species)
  • Beetles
  • Other species of bees. 
• Mites (Young et al. 2016)

Though not much data is available on leafcutter bees due to lack of research, one example of a native Washington leafcutter bee is Megachile melanophoe who is known to forage on Agastache, Apocynum, Astragalus, Azalea, Campanula, Cypripedium, Epilobium, Helianthus, Lupinus, Medicago, Phacelia, Psoralea, Ranunculus, Raphanus, Rhodora, Rosa, Rubus, Rudbeckia, Symphoricarpos, Taraxacum, Trifolium, and Vicia.

Bee health

Bees don’t build up antibodies, rather, they employ physical, cellular, and some humoral immunity (using enzymes and other compounds). Bees are affected by many different fungi, bacteria, viruses, and arthropods, which is especially problematic when the the pest or pathogen is introduced/ non-native (Wilson-Rich 2014). Abundant and diverse forage that provides a variety of nutritional services is important to the resilience of populations (Wojcik 2018).

Fungi:

• Common giving that bees often nest in dark cavities
• Nosema is a common one
• Fungi can directly affect bees or affect their nests

Bacteria

• Causes higher colony loss than fungi
• Is acquired orally and affects the gut
• May go away or spread to other nests

Virus

• Transmissible directly or via arthropods
• Often has visible symptoms

Arthropods

• Example, Varroa mite, which carries viruses
• Beetles
• Mites
• Moths
• Usually invasive species (Wilson-Rich 2014)

5b. Habitat assessment/improvements

Planting

Talked to Sarah D, decided to collaborate on clearing noxious weeds out of the abandoned kale bed, leaving herbals, strawberries, flowers, and adding seeds in the empty patches. I spent some time Tuesday and Thursday weeding the community garden bed. I also plan on sowing some dually medicinal and bee-food plants in the empty areas after clearing weeds, probably in week 6.

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Spotted: lots and lots of bumble bees

Assessing

On tuesday I walked up and down the farm inventorying “spring-blooming species of wildflowers, flowering shrubs, or pollinator-friendly trees on farm that support bees” (Adamson et al. 2015), not including noxious or invasive plants.

Around the farmhouse and other buildings

• Pacific dogwood
• Black huckleberry
• Salal
• Red dead nettle (naturalized)
• Cascade barberry
• Red huckleberry
• Pacific crab apple
• Osoberry
• Annual honesty (naturalized)
• Bleeding heart
• Red clover (naturalized)

Within the farm fence

1. Trillium
2. Red-flowering currant
3. Blue bells
4. Red-berried elder
5. Pear
6. Candy flower
7. Chokeberry
8. Apple
9. Plum
10. Cherry
11. Oregon grape
12. Oceanspray
13. Salmonberry
14. Osoberry
15. Red huckleberry
16. Borage (non-native but not technically invasive, unlike relatives)

In the road-side insectary shrub garden

• Yellow-flowering currant
• Serviceberry

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Invasive/noxious species in the farm and around buildings

• Comfrey (which the bees seem to love, but I wonder how that affects other plants?)
• Buttercup
• Mustard
• Pentaglottis/forget-me-not
• Dandelion
• Dove’s-foot crane’s-bill
• Periwinkle
• Daisy
• Carpet bugle

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5c. Film and media analysis

In this clip, Ed Szymanski explains his reasons for growing medicinal and culinary herbs as a beekeeper. He says that growing herbs is “extremely beneficial” to the pollinators. He cites evidence that honey bees prefer forage with antimicrobial properties. He also points out that growing herbs is also good for human health.

Some of the benefits that bees get from the flowers they feed on include:

• Ex: thymol from thyme deters varroa mites
• Honey bees prefer to forage on antimicrobial plants especially if ailments are present
• Bees are excellent at self medicating via forage, and even transfer some of those qualities to honey
• Ashley Adamant: help the bees, help yourself
• Rather than veggies for us, flowers for bees, plants that do both!!
• Carvacrol
• Thymol
• Terpenes
• Antimicrobials
• Palmitic, linoleic, linoleic acids 
  • Borage, sage, thyme, cham, sunflower (all also antibacterial)

The idea of planting farmscape pollinator habitat that also provides herbal food and medicine to people (for either commercial or personal use) is exciting to me. I imagine that planting herbs for native bees could be a source of income that would incentivize creating habitat for feral native bees rather than keeping honey bees.

He says that some excellent plants for this practice are:

5d. Tasting research

Monofloral versus polyfloral honey

• Many commercial beekeepers sell honey and migratory pollination services for intensive monocultural farms
  • They harvest multiple times a year and typically offer moonofloral honey because of the market value of that
• Most, though, are small beekeeping operations. 
  • Many harvest only once a year, yielding complex honey which contains aggregate flavors from across seasons, often labelled “wildflower”
  • Some harvest multiple times a year, yielding flavor profiles specific to each season
    • Spring is light, summer is typically darker, and fall (if there is any) is super dark and rich
    • If there is one dominant species in the time between harvests when bees are actively foraging, it might be obvious the primary source of nectar
• In this way, there are “specialized” and “generalist” honey peddlers
• Honey flavor is a reflection of the beekeepers, the climate that year, and the floral resources in the local area
• Climate change
  • Extreme weather events can cause changes in overall flavor and appearance
• (Marchese, Flottum 2016)

5g. Cooking

This week, on the theme of sharing food and herbs with the bees, I made some mustard flower spring rolls (with homemade honey peanut dip of course), lemon balm tea, and a little fresh oregano on my pizza, all of which I picked in the overgrown community garden bed.

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5h. References

1. nofamass. (2021, March 17). Growing Beneficial Herbs for Bees with Ed and Marian Szymanski [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_5wHw6l11o

2. Coe, P. (2005). Apitherapy bee gardens: exploring a paradigm for bee-centric healing centers. Journal of the American Apitherapy Society. https://www.biodynamics.com/system/files/pdf/Apitherapy%20Bee%20Gardems%20-%20Priscilla%20Coe%20%28Spring%202006%20No.%20256%29.pdf

3. Wilson-Rich, N. (2014). The bee: a natural history. Sussex, UK: Princeton University Press

4: Wojcik, V. A., Morandin, L. A., Adams, L. D., & Rourke, K. E. (2018). Floral Resource Competition Between Honey Bees and Wild Bees: Is There Clear Evidence and Can We Guide Management and Conservation? Environmental Entomology, 47(4), 822–833. https://doi-org.evergreen.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/ee/nvy077

5: Young, B. Schweitzer, D. Hammerson, G. Sears, N. Ormes, M. Tomaino, A. (2016). Conservation and Management of NORTH AMERICAN LEAFCUTTER BEES. Arlington, VA: Natureserve.

6: Moisset, B. Leaf Cutting Bees (Megachile spp.) United States Department of Agriculture. https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/megachile_bees.shtml

7: Marchese, M. Flottum, K. (2013). The honey connoisseur: selecting, tasting, and pairing honey, with a guide to more than 30 varietals. New York, NY: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishing.

8: Adamson, N.M. Border, B. Cruz, J.K. Jordan, S.F. Gill, K. Goldenetz-Dollar, J. Heidel-Baker, T. Hopwood, J. Lee-mader, E. May, E. Vaughan, M. (2015). Native bee conservation, pollinator habitat assessment form and guide: farms and agricultural landscapes. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/habitat-assessment-guides

9: Nuzzi, D. (1992). Pocket herbal reference guide. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press.

4a. Pollinator habitat research 

Native bee spotlight: bumble bees!

Distribution

There are about 40 native species of bumble bee (bees in the genus Bombus) in North America. Worldwide, there are 250 species and 15 subgenera. In North America, native species range from the Pacific coast to Colorado. They tend to live in or near boreal forests, cold prairies, coastal plains, and mountain meadows. some species can survive in arctic temperatures (Koch 2012).

Social life

Bumble bees are social, living in small colonies with a single queen. The subgenus Psithyrus are parasitic on other bumble bee colonies, killing the queen and taking over the hive. Between species the size of a colony ranges from 50 to 1000+ (Koch 2012).

Morphology

Bumble bees have relatively large, furry bodies that allow for activity in cold, cloudy conditions (like the puget sound!). They are corbiculate, meaning they have pollen baskets on their legs. Tongue length ranges among North American bumble bees. Unlike mason bees, they will sting. (Koch 2012)

Bumble bees as agricultural allies

They do produce honey, but not commercially harvestable amounts. They are especially interested in and effective at pollinating crops in the nightshade family, such as tomato (Koch 2012) and other buzz-pollinated plants such as blueberries. According to SARE.org, “tomatoes form larger, more even fruits with buzz pollination” (Mader et al. 2010). They have long tongues compared to honey bee, and can tolerate lower light levels and temperatures. They emerge at 45F making them effective pollinators of crops like raspberry and watermelon which release pollen early in the morning. They are great in greenhouses for a couple of reasons. First, because they seek out the closest suitable forage, whereas honey bees will find a way out of the greenhouse to find better resources. Secondly, it is easy to relocate and situate a bumble bee nest into a greenhouse. (Mader et al. 2010)

Diet

Generalists, they pollinate both self-compatible and outcrossing plants. Collect extra pollen for brood. They need nearly constant forage to sustain a hive, and the abundance of floral resources correlates directly with the density of individuals in a given area. (Koch 2012)

Life cycle

Queens live only 1 year, but can lay as many as 1000 offspring. The queen hibernates alone in a ground cavity until spring. She emerges, foraging along her way as she looks for a nesting site. The queen will lay her eggs after she’s made some cells filled with pollen. She will then sit on these pods like a mama bird. The mature offspring emerge in 4 weeks. These all-female workers will get to work foraging and caring for the queen’s subsequential brood (drones and queens). Fertile drones and queens will mate, the males will die, and the new queens will each establish a new colony after hibernation in the spring. Each species varies in phenology of these events. (Koch 2012)

Nesting

Most bumble bees nest in the ground in existing cavities or burrows. Some nest in wood piles or man-made structures. (Koch 2012)

Some bumble bees species whose range includes the South Salish Sea according to Koch 2012 are:

• Nevada bumble bee (B. nevadensis)
• Obscure bumble bee (B. caliginosus) (endangered)
• Van Dyke bumble bee (B. vandykei) (endangered)
• Sitka bumble bee (B. sitkensis)
• Yellow head bumble bee (B. flavifrons)
• Fuzzy-horned bumble bee (B. mixtus)
• Black tail bumble bee (B. melanopygus)
• Vosnesensky bumble bee (B. vosnesensky)
• Two form bumble bee (B. bifarius)
• Red-belted bumble bee (B. rufocinctus)
• Brown belted bumble bee (B. griseocollis)
• Western bumble bee (B. occidentalis) (endangered)
• White-shouldered bumble bee (B. appositus)
• California bumble bee (B. californicus) (endangered)
• Indiscriminate cuckoo bee (B. insularis)
• Fernald cuckoo bee (B. fernaldae) (endangered)
• Suckley cuckoo bee (B. suckleyi) (endangered)

To pick a bee to highlight in detail, I found the Bombus spp. sighting on iNaturalist closest to the farm, and tried to identify it using this guide. I’m pretty sure it’s B. mixtus.

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Bombus mixtus: the fuzzy-horned bumble bee

Range: Pacific Coast east to CO rockies, north to Alaska, usually high elevation (Koch 2012). Grassy, shrubby open area and mountain meadow (Fretwell 2015).

Morphology: Medium length tongue (Koch 2012). Queens are 15-17 mm and the workers are 10-14 mm (7). Workers have a yellow and black thorax and their abdomen is (in order T1 to T5): yellow, yellow and black, black and maybe a little orange, pale orange, orange (2, 7).

Known forage genera that match up with those that grow at the Organic Farm: Rubus, Trifolium, Lupinus, Epilobium (Koch 2012), Achillea, Phacelia, Solidago, Vaccinium, Astragalus (7), probably more.

Nesting: Near meadow. On, above, or below ground. Queens Sometimes invade nests of the same species. (7)

Relevance to Agriculture: mixtus frequently visits cranberry and blueberry (7).

Phenology: Forage April through July, establish nests in May through June (Koch 2012).

Conservation threats: None. They are common (Koch 2012) and apparently stable in population (Fretwell 2015).

Bombus insularis: the indiscriminate cuckoo bee

Bombus insularis belongs to the subgenus Psithyrus, cuckoo bumble bees, who are parasitic (4).

Range: tundra, taiga, mountains, and maritime regions (4).

Forage: do not have the ability to collect pollen, so rely on other species’ nests. They are short-tongued, and feed on many different flowers for nectar, including the genera Solidago, Vaccinium, and Aster (3).

Nesting: kills the queen of another bumble bee species’ nest and assumes their role (4)

Hosts: B. appositus, B. fervidus, B. flavifrons, B. nevadensis, and B. ternaris (4)

Life cycle: offspring are never workers, because they employ the workers of other species. All Bombus insularis offspring are queens or drones. (3)

Phenology: active May through September (3).

More research: forage

Notes from 100 Plants to Feed the Bees by the Xerces Society

Animals pollinate 90% of plants. Flowers co-evolved with pollinators, resulting in a variety of relationships. Some flowers evolved to promote outcrossing, becoming self-incompatible, putting distance between anther and stigma, having male and female parts be fertile at different times, and even having separate individuals for male parts and female parts.

Plants produce nectar for adult bees and pollen for brood (offspring). Non-parasitic adult bees gather pollen, some in “pollen baskets” (hairs on their legs) and some on other parts of their body. Some pollinators have evolved floral constancy, meaning a specialized relationship between the plant and the animal (think milkweed and monarchs).

Some specialized relationships based on morphology include short tongued bees foraging on sunflowers, and long tongued bees (or strong bees) foraging on tubular gentian.

Reasons for plant-pollinator compatibility include phenology, morphology, color, and odor.

Attraction: how do flowers flirt?

• UV color
• Color phases: using color to signify stages of fertility
• Nectar guides: patterns and colors like a “landing strip” indicating the location of rewards
• Fragrance: communicates over long distances to attract bees

Floral rewards (from a bee’s perspective):

• pollen: protein, aminos, and trace minerals
• nectar: carbs/ sugars
• oil and resin: calories, medicine, and waterproof, antimicrobial building substance

Other useful plant parts:

• Hollow canes (for mason, carpenter, or masked bees)
• Stalks, stems, twigs
• Leaves, petals, fiber
• Peeling bark

The ideal habitat (Lee-Mader 2016)

• 12-20 species at least, 3+ blooming at a time. Diversity is key; more species means a longer flowering season
• 10-30% of farmland
• 5,000+ square feet
• Group similar plants in 4+ sq ft sections
• No insecticides
• Minimum 50-100 ft buffer between pollinator landscape and insecticide-treated crops

4b. Habitat assessment and improvements

The landscape of the organic farm is unusual. Although there’s not much wildflower meadow space, there is plenty of flowering shrubs in the forest surrounding it. There is also a generous variety of habitat on and around the farm, and new projects in development. Therefore, estimating a percentage of non-crop land that’s populated by wildflowers and other pollinator forage plants is both reductive of the overall forage resources present to pollinators, and difficult to objectively quantify. Even so, within the limits of the farm, I very loosely estimated 30-50% of non-crop cover to be floral resources.

I simplified my notes into this visual map of where wildflowers and flowering trees and shrubs are currently visible. The orange areas are densely populated by flowering plants, mostly native, including the community garden, the trees in demeter’s garden, and some clusters of mini-habitat consisting of mostly native shrubs (bottom of map). The yellow areas are sparsely populated by flowers from what I can tell. Those areas are mostly grassy. The blue-green areas are a mix of grass and flowers. 

Gardening for the bees

On Tuesday I weeded two small, sunny areas in an abandoned community garden plot to sow some wildflower seeds. On Thursday, I mixed in compost and planted phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia) and a native pollinator seed mix from Northwest Meadowscapes. I also spent the last hour in the herb garden weeding with Alegra and Le’Allen to rescue some perennial herbs that were being choked by buttercup.

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The native pollinator mix I bought from Northwest Meadowscapes includes the following plants:

Annual forage

• Douglas meadowfoam
• Collomia
• globe gilia
• farewell to spring, winecup, and diamond clarkia
• sea blush
• Clover
• popcorn flower
• Lupine
• Menzie’s fiddleneck

Perennial forage

• Self-heal
• Yarrow
• Common and large camas
• Gumweed, big leaf, and river bank lupine
• Goldenrod
• Checkermallow
• Milkweed
• Sunflower
• Fleabane
• Horsemint
• Barestem biscuitroot
• Cinquefoil
• Spring gold

Grasses

• Roemer’s fescue
• Tufted hairgrass
• Meadow barley

4c. Film/media analysis and tasting research

After watching Queen of the Sun last week and noticing the lack of women’s voices in that piece of media, I decided to seek out a feminine perspective explicitly. After searching around I came across this article by Ariella Daly. Instead of watching a film this week, I listened to the hour long episode #097 of Dirt in Your Skirt with Margaret Schlachter. I enjoyed her very spiritual take on beekeeping.

Daly says that history is written in men’s voices, while folklore is told by women. She talks a lot about bees in folklore, spirituality, and archetypes. The Mellisae were priestesses in ancient greece, named after bees. Honey and milk are both feminine in nature, products of reproductive labor performed by the female of each species. St. Brigid in Irish-pagan mythology travelled with bees as her handmaidens to protect her with their stings while she brought the plants to life in the spring. She’s like a queen bee.

The way she views the society in a hive is that the workers and the queen sacrifice for each other. The queen does not rule over the hive. Drones, workers, and the queen work together to build a home and reproduce.

Ariella Daly, “I started beekeeping over a decade ago for a number reasons. Sure, I wanted to save the bees like the rest of us, but my motives were much less altruistic than that phrase entails. I wanted to mother something. I had just suffered a traumatic miscarriage, and I needed to take care of something precious and full of life.”

Daly says that a hive came into her life shortly after she miscarried. At minute 22:00 she shares this story, saying that she was “spiritually bleeding out” and that beekeeping saved her. She goes on to discuss how tending a hive, honey, and even being stung can all be medicine.

Beekeeping as therapy: minutes 29:00-32:30

Tending a hive requires you to be very present and calm. The host, Margaret Schlachter, shares from her own experience, “if you’re having a crappy day, and you bring that energy to the beehive, they know.” Daly agrees, saying “bees are a bridge species between the wild, our wild nature, and…our domesticated lives… What we bring is reflected immediately back to us.” This reminds me of working with horses. It’s scary at times, and requires attentiveness. The animal picks up on any slight body language that you’re nervous, and almost always reflects that back at you. You have to earn their trust and stay very calm and confident.

“There is so much healing that can happen through working with bees. A lot of people get into working with bees because they need nature connection, or they need to calm the F down” (Daly laughs). She notes that beekeeping can be incredibly healing for veterans with PTSD, incarcerated folks, and women. She says that working with the “womb”, the hive, brings up a lot of trauma for women and an opportunity for therapy in that sense.

If you’re interested in hearing more, in this video she discusses the parallels between control of a woman’s reproductive power and control of the honey bee, among other topics.

On another personal note, listening to Ariella and the Margaret was very healing. Many media resources I find are from the perspective of men, and just listening to a person orate in a feminine way, and be heard and respected, was something I didn’t know I was missing. 

Next week I want to dive more into how bee products, bee husbandry, and bee gardening can all be healing, inspired by this Ariella’s work. What is the intersection between holistic medicine and bees? I hope to tie in my work in the herb garden.

4e. Sensory analysis

This week I went off book a little because I really wanted to taste for myself whether the flavor of honey varietals reflects the plant who’s nectar it’s derived from. I didn’t have access to the appropriate flowers, so I gathered what I could: dried red clover leaves for “wildflower” honey, dried alfalfa leaves, frozen blackberries, and carrot root. To try this at home, you’ll need:

• A few kinds of honey with the forage plants identified (“clover honey” for example)
• Some plant matter from the kind of plant the honey bees foraged from
• Hot water
• Several roughly equal-sized heat safe cups
• Measuring spoons
• Pen and paper

Methodology: I then steeped 1 tablespoon of each plant and one teaspoon of each honey varietal in roughly 100 mL of hot water. I had my trusty lab aid (my live-in partner) steep the honey, and I labeled each cup with a symbol so he could tell me which was which after I’d done the experiment. Next, I did my best (using tasting advice from The Honey Connoisseur) to match the plants with the honey.

Results: I was way off. The only honey I successfully matched with its plant of origin was blackberry.

Conclusion: if I was to apply this casual experiment to form an opinion about the terroir of honey, I’d have to say that honeys taste much different than the plants they come from. I would love to try this experiment again with the flowers from each plant instead, because so much of flavor is aroma, and sometimes the flowers of a plant smell much different than their other parts.

I also did the exercise in Chapter 5: Tasting Honey of The Honey Connoisseur, under the section titled “Flavor”. Similarly to the jelly bean experiment from Taste by Barb Stuckey, the exercise had me experience the honey with my nose pinched versus with olfaction in play. I was not surprised to find that a product derived from flowers was missing most of its allure without aroma, but I was surprised to find that all the honeys were noticeably salty. I am curious whether this is a reflection of the coastal climate.

4f. Special events

This week I attended Farmworker Justice Day and was so glad I did. The guests included folks from Familias Unidas por La Justicia and from Community to Community.

FUJ is a union of 400+ indigenous Mixteco and Triqui farm workers. They led strikes and boycotts against Driscoll for 4 years before being recognized. They even started a worker-owned berry coop, Tierra y Libertad.

C2C calls itself a “place-based”, “eco-feminist” organization. They are woman-led out of Bellingham, established in 1980.

4g. Cooking/foodoir writing

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4h. References

1. Lee-Mader, E. Fowler, J. Vento, J. Hopwood, J. (2016). 100 plants to feed the bees: provide a healthy habitat to help pollinators thrive. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing
2. Koch, J. Strange, J. Williams, P. (2012). Bumble bees of the western United States. Logan, UT: Pollinator Partnership. Link
3. Bombus insularis: indiscriminate cuckoo bumble bee. Bumble bee brigade. https://wiatri.net/inventory/bbb/resources/SpeciesDetail.cfm?ESTID=11416
4. Bombus insularis. (2021, February 27). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombus_insularis
5. Inaturalist listing by Luca_hickey
6. Fretwell, K. Fuzzy-horned bumble bee, orange-belted bumble bee, mixed bumble bee: Bombus mixtus. (2015). Biodiversity of the Central Coast. https://www.centralcoastbiodiversity.org/fuzzy-horned-bumble-bee-bull-bombus-mixtus.html
7. Fuzzy-horned Bumble Bee: Bombus mixtus. (May 4, 2021) Montana Field Guide. Montana Natural Heritage Program. http://FieldGuide.mt.gov/speciesDetail.aspx?elcode=IIHYM24160
8. Mader, E. Spivak, M. Evans, E (2010). Managing Alternative Pollinators. 43-53. SARE Outreach. Link
9. Schlachter, M. (Host). (2016-present). Dirt in your skirt [Audio podcast]. Episode 097. https://dirtinyourskirt.com
10. Marchese, M. Flottum, K. (2013). The honey connoisseur: selecting, tasting, and pairing honey, with a guide to more than 30 varietals. New York, NY: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishing.

3a. Natural history/regen ag research

General natural history of bees (notes from The Bee reading)

Bees evolved from wasps. Some are solitary, others are social. There are over 20,000 recorded species of bee. The Bee: A Natural History by Noah Wilson-Rich breaks bees into 4 categories:

• Solitary
• Bumble
• Stingless
• Honey

There are 3 types of bees in relation to the flowers they pollinate (organized in the book by family)

• Short tongued:
  • Andrenidae
  • Colletidae
  • Stenotritidae
• Medium length tongue:
  • Dasyponaidae
  • Meganomidae
  • Melittidae
  • Halictidae
• Long-tongued:
  • Apidae
    • Bumble and honeybees
  • Megachilidae
    • Mason bees

How do bees fly?

High speed photography in the 2000s showed they create vortexes with their wings

Bee senses:

• Eyes: see ultraviolet, but no red (world is blue and purple)
• Feel: vibrate to communicate
• Taste: they have ten taste receptors
• Smell: 
  • Used to detect predators and flowers
  • Smells can be handed antennae-to-antennae
  • 163 odor receptors 
  • Antennae are responsible
• Sound: not significant to a bee

Native bee spotlight: mason bees (Osmia spp.)

Most Osmia species that live in North America (about 40% of the Osmia genus worldwide) (Ormes 2015) are native to North America (Beaudette 2013). They are adapted to cool weather and light rain. They are blue, shiny, and stout. They don’t make honey, and they don’t sting unless provoked. (McClure 2016) They’re incredibly efficient workers. (Burlew 2019) The genus Osmia includes 342 known species (Ormes 2015).

Distribution:

Mason bees live all over the world, but of those in North America, most live on the West Coast (Ormes 2015).

Why are they important?

Solitary bees don’t busy themselves with making honey, so they need less nectar and pollinate far more flowers than honey bees. They also work at cooler hours of the day, and in cold, wet climates where honey bees aren’t well suited (Ormes 2015). 250 mason bees can pollinate 1 acre of apple (McClure 2016). They are great allies in food production and plant biodiversity.

What do they pollinate?

Generally, mason bees need forage that flowers between February and May (Beaudette 2013). Some species of mason bees are specialists while others will pollinate many different floral species (Ormes 2015). Most species have medium length tongues. They also dislodge a lot of pollen when they visit due to the motion. They collect pollen on their abdomen. (11, add citation!)

Their known forage as a genus includes (Ormes 2015):

• Asteraceae (aster family)
• Berberidaceae (barberry family)
• Ebenaceae (ebony family)
• Ericaceae (heather family)
• Fabaceae (pea family)
• Fagaceae (oak family)
• Grossulariaceae (currant family)
• Rhamnaceae (buckthorn family)
• Rosaceae (rose family)
• Scrophulariaceae (figwort family)

Included in these families are some treasured understory food and medicine plants native to the PNW; huckleberry, salmonberry, strawberry, native roses, peas and clovers, mullein, foxglove, dandelion, chicory, yarrow, coltsfoot, arnica, burdock, thistle, salal, and more (5).

Some other species:

Osmia ribifloris is a busy pollinator of blueberries and cranberries (Burlew 2019).

O. lanei is an example of a very particular eater, who prefers to only collect pollen and nectar from flowers in the pea family. (Ormes 2015)

What are their nesting habits?

The mason bee is a solitary bee, meaning they don’t organize in hives. Osmia spp. nest in cavities at least 6″ deep covered on one end, usually in wood, woody stems, soil, or rock. The male bees are laid in the front and the female bee(s) in the back, each in their own cell, along with some food, and sealed with mud (Beaudette 2013, Ormes 2015). Mason bees require a source of mud and pre-made holes to make their nests (McClure 2016, Ormes 2015).

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Life cycle

In the spring, when temperatures reach 55 F, bees emerge from their holes. Females will mate with males, work for about 4 weeks, lay their eggs with some pollen and nectar, and then die. Baby bees grow to maturity by September, and hibernate until spring. This means mason bees are dormant for most of the year (Beaudette 2013, Ormes 2015).

Threats to native mason bees

According to NatureServe, at least 17% of the 139 Osmia species native to North America are endangered. Threats include habitat loss and degradation, pesticide use, and disease; the same factors threatening all bees.

How to attract native Mason bees to your garden or farm

Mason bee nesting boxes can be constructed using stacked tubes of some kind, at least 6″ long because females are laid in the back. This should be mounted in the way of morning sunshine and within a short distance from mud and spring flowers. Be sure to change it out or clean it well every two years (Beaudette 2013). Read more here.

The Organic Farm and community garden have 3 mason bee nesting boxes. The one in the community garden should be moved to a shadier spot for cooler afternoons.

3b. Habitat assessment/improvements

On Tuesday, I spent the morning weeding with Alegra and Le’Allen in the herb garden to prepare for planting hyssop and reviving the calendula garden.

On Thursday I toured the farm to take notes and then spent an hour or so weeding a space in the community garden for planting pollinator meadow flowers.

For the habitat assessment, the guide prompted me to look for a checklist of landscape features (pictured below) and also calculate what percent of the farm is in natural or semi-natural habitat.

Methodology: I took notes on an aerial map from google maps during the tour. Then I highlighted natural and semi-natural habitat within the borders of the farm. I placed a grid over the labeled map, counted how many squares the farm fit, and then counted how many squares were filled with natural landscape. I then divided value A by value B, multiplied the result (C) by 100, resulting in a percent value.

3c. Film and media analysis

This week I’m sharing minutes 36:00-38:20 of the film Queen of the Sun to address how learning about honey bees can be relevant to learning about native pollinators.

The way the message is communicated starts with beekeeper Gunter Friedman using the metaphor of a canary in a coal mine in reference to the decline of the honey bee. Then Scott Black, biologist from Xerces society, orates as the filmmakers cut in footage of bees feeding on beautiful flowers. I think the way they started with a wide shot of a field and then inserted close ups of native bees conveys the message that there is much more to a landscape than meets the eye. Black says, “what most people think of when they think of a pollinator is they think of the honey bee, and the honey bee is by far the most important agricultural pollinator we have, but what a lot of people don’t realize is… we have about 4,000 species of other bees… and beyond bees, flies and beetles are very very important pollinators.” At minutes 37:45, Scott Black explains that “we’ve seen a decline in many of our bees. With our native bees, we’re seeing declines from probably the same things; disease to nutrition to potentially pesticides, as well as habitat loss.”

This clip does a good job of connecting honey bees to their relatives. The decline of honey bees is an indication that there are threats to native bees and other insect pollinators too. These workers are crucial to human life. By studying honey bees, we can gain insight into how to conserve other insect populations. And by planting forage or preserving habitat for honey bees, we support native pollinators too.

At another point during this film, I got very curious about feminism in beekeeping, because I noticed the male beekeepers using patriarchal language like “virgin”, “marriage” referring to mating, and “good girls” when talking about worker bees. I will be exploring this more week 4.

3d. Tasting research

Notes from The Honey Connoisseur chapter 5, “Tasting Honey”

The authors’ take on honey sensory analysis is similar to the standard protocol for wine and food. They consider the goals of sensory analysis to be:

• What flavors and aromas are present
• Their intensity
• The order of their appearance
• Any “off” flavors, or a baseline for what normal tastes like

They advise that the taster:

• Don’t eat beforehand
• No perfume
• Drink water/ rest between samples
• Don’t use containers with flashy packaging

Appearance

According to the book, raw and unfiltered honey is usually cloudy.

Texture

Texture and viscosity are actually two different things: viscosity is the body or weight, while texture is the tactile mouthfeel (affected by temperature).

Some honeys will crystalize, while other types never do. This happens when particles (dust, pollen, air bubbles, etc) act as nuclei for the formation of crystals. It can be natural or induced. Honey with >30% glucose will crystalize quickly. Between 60F and 75F, crystals grow quickly and consistent. Above 75F or below 60F will result in uneven chunks. Small crystals are typically considered pleasantly smooth and spreadable, while chunky crystals are undesirable.

Thixotropic honey, like the popular Manuka honey, is gel like at rest but liquid when shaken.

Aroma

Cupping the top for a minute will heat up the aroma volatiles.

The authors claim that the three biggest factors in a honey’s flavor are nectar sources, local terroir, and the beekeeper.

Flavor

Most honey will present tart or sour flavors. Some honey is sweeter than others. More glucose and less fructose will make very sweet honey, sometimes overwhelmingly so. Coastal honeys can be salty. Rarely does umami present in honey.

Other things present in a hive that may be in your honey include beeswax, pollen, and propolis. Beeswax tastes warm and sweet. Pollen tastes sweet, nutty, earthy, floral, and may sting. Pollen is antibacterial. Propolis may taste like sap, resin, turpentine, or wax.

Bad honey

Separation could indicate spoilage. Fermentation only occurs in honey with a moisture content >17-18%. It might smell like bread, wine, or mead, and feel tingly. High moisture is a result of harvesting honey from the comb too early in it’s curing. Some honeys may be overly smokey due to the smoke used in beekeeping, but some just naturally have smokey flavors.

Non-native guest of honor: the honey bee (Apis spp.)

Notes from The Bee: a Natural History unless otherwise cited

Honey bees live in colonies that nest in combs constructed by worker bees. They secrete wax to build these hives. The combs store food (honey!) for brood and for winter survival. Apis spp. belong to the subfamily Apinae, along with bumble bees, long horned bees, orchid bees, digger bees, and more. While these other genus have nests between 1-100’s of bees, Apis spp. have 10’s to 1000’s of bees in a hive. The colony includes worker bees who forage and do other labor, drones who mate with the queen, and the queen who lays eggs.

Honey bees produce:

Honey is cured nectar, sealed with wax in the comb until harvested by bees, humans, or animals. If harvested too early, the honey may have a high water content and be vulnerable to fermentation (Marchese 2013).

Within the genus Apis (honey bees) is multiple commercially exploited species: 

• From Africa: 
  • mellifera 
• From Asia:
  • cerana 
  • koschevnikovi 
  • migrocincta 

Life cycle of a worker honey bee (female)

1. In a brood cell, egg hatches
2. Larvae feeds on royal jelly
3. Feeds on bee bread
4. Grows to pupa stage by 1 week old
5. Stays sealed in for an additional 2 weeks
6. Mature bee emerges at 3 weeks old
7. Performs reproductive labor 
8. Guards the hive
9. Levels up to forager
10. Dies: summer born worker honey bees live ~1 month, winter born female honey bees live ~3-6 months, queen bees live years, and drones live ~3 months.

Diet

• Nectar for carbohydrates
• Pollen for protein

 Nectar is stored in the crop pouch. Honey bees carry 20-40 mg at a time.

Honey history

Artwork depicting honey gathering dates back to 13,000 yrs ago. Terroir fact alert: Egyptians are the oldest known beekeepers, even using hives on rafts to diversify the diet of bees and therefore the flavor. Apis mellifera Lamarckii evolved in Egypt.

Mesoamericans also kept (stingless) honey bees for 1000’s of years pre-columbus.

The Queen bee

A queen bee is made by feeding more royal jelly to a larva. Sometimes multiple queens emerge and have to fight to the death.

• Gets a special room and special royal jelly during brood stage
• She is the only bee in the colony who can lay eggs

The purpose of the stinger in honey bees:

• Queen: kill other queens (won’t die after use)
• Worker: hormonal signal and colony defense (will die when she stings)
• Drone: fertilizes queen (and then the drone dies)

Genetics

• Females are diploid
• Males are haploid
• Workers occasionally can lay eggs, in the absence of a queen, that are haploid drones

3e. Sensory analysis

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This week I tasted a variety of honey samples to find out the range of flavors and textures possible in honey. I used methodology and tools from The Honey Connoisseur by Marina Marchese and Kim Flottum. The raw honey samples I tasted are from Jacobsen Salt Co. Overall, I was amazed by the range of flavors and textures and my mind was spinning with all the ways I could use these different honeys.

3f. Special events

3g. Cooking and/or writing

I had fun this week experimenting with which varietals of honey to add to what foods. I put alfalfa honey on my toast, used buckwheat honey in place of molasses in my seitan, added wildflower and blackberry honey to my yoghurt in place of fruit that’s not in season yet, and used clover honey to sweeten and brighten my coffee cake, with a carrot flower honey wash. The various flavors all ignited lost memories. The alfalfa honey reminded me distinctly of honey nut cheery-o’s. The carrot flower honey, especially it’s texture (thick with consistent tiny crystals, but melty, like coconut oil) reminded me of the raw honey my stepmom would buy for us when I was little. We had the kind of kitchen stocked with lots of raw “healthy” ingredients but no snacks, so one of my favorite things to make was a tortilla or toast with cinnamon and raw honey. A little bit of honey goes a long way, so it was a sneaky treat when I was young.

Ingredients:

• Cinnamon
• Big leaf maple flowers, removed from stem
• Dried, crushed orange peel
• Vanilla
• Chia seeds
• 1/2 cup honey
• 3 1/4 cup flour of choice
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp butter or oil
• 1 cup milk of choice
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Bake at 375 F for 45 minutes!

3h. References

1. Burlew, R. (2019, June 20). What do mason bees pollinate? Do mason bees and honey bees compete? Backyard Beekeeping. https://backyardbeekeeping.iamcountryside.com/plants-pollination/what-do-mason-bees-pollinate/

2. Beaudette, J. (2013, March 15). Attract mason bees- no protective gear needed. Ecological Landscape Alliance. https://www.ecolandscaping.org/03/landscaping-for-wildlife/beneficialspollinators/attract-mason-bees-no-protective-gear-needed/

3. McClure, N. (2016, May 20). An ode to six native bees. Forterra. https://forterra.org/editorial/ode-six-native-bees#annotations:wjKDHpf9Eeu6SPsp04SFrA

4: Ormes, M. Schweitzer, D. Sears, N. Young, B. (2015, September). Conservation and management of north american mason bees. NatureServe. https://www.natureserve.org/sites/default/files/web_-_natureserve_osmia_report_brochure.pdf

5: MacKinnon, A., Pojar, J., & Alaback, P. B. (1994). Plants of the Pacific Northwest coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska. Richmond, Wash: Lone Pine Publishing.

7: Wilson-Rich, N. (2014). The bee: a natural history. Sussex, UK: Princeton University Press

8: Marchese, M. Flottum, K. (2013). The honey connoisseur: selecting, tasting, and pairing honey, with a guide to more than 30 varietals. New York, NY: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishing.

9: Siegel, T. (Director). (2010). Queen of the sun: what are the bees telling us? [Film]. Collective Eye, Inc.

10: Robertson, L. (1986). The New Laurel’s Kitchen. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press

11: https://ncipmhort.cfans.umn.edu/id-native-bees-0#:~:text=Size%3A%20Medium%2C%204.5%20%2D%208,(0.08%20%2D0.1%20in.)