Mason Bee Revolution: How the Hardest Working Bee Can Save the World- One Backyard at a Time
Dave Hunter . Unknown Year . English
The national media regularly features dire stories on honeybee colony collapse and its danger to our food supply. But there's another, unsung bee that has the potential to save the planet—the mason bee. Mason Bee Revolution explains how docile, hard-working, solitary mason bees (and their compatriots, the leafcutter bees) are even more productive pollinators than honeybees, and keeping them can be a fun, easy, backyard hobby for gardeners, conservationists, foodies, and families everywhere. Why these bees? Bee pollination is critical for about 80 percent of US agricultural crops, increasing crop value by an estimated $15 billion annually. Since 2006, nearly a third of all honeybee hives have been lost each year, due to parasites, pesticides, habitat loss, climate change, and a newer malady called Colony Collapse Disorder. While scientists search for answers to save the honeybee, Dave Hunter and his company, Crown Bees, are leading the effort to increase the population of other highly efficient pollinators: One mason bee can produce twelve pounds of cherries, via pollination, where it would take sixty honey bees to achieve the same. Mason Bee Revolution is an easy-to-follow guide to keeping both mason and leafcutter bees. It tells you how to set up, care for, and harvest your own bees and what types of plants and habitat encourage mason and leafcutter bees, as well as provides general information on other common pollinators and bee-related facts, projects, and personalities.
Categories: Nutrition & Food
About the Author
I had the best mid life crisis possible. As DHL closed their doors in 2008 and laid me off as a Director of Real Estate and Director of a Project Management Office, I tried to find a position anywhere. In the beginning of the recession, no such luck. Could I take a backyard hobby and create a company? In analyzing the mason bee industry, it consisted of a few small online stores and a few trials with the bees in almond orchards. I called every researcher and person interested in mason bees for over six weeks. My early evaluation floored me. If the mason bee was scientifically a superior pollinator, why wasn't it in use in more orchards? Dr. Bill Kemp, one of the world's mason bee experts suggested that I watch the move "Bottle Shock." It told a story of the California wine industry's triumph over the entrenched French wine position as "best in the world." I called him back and asked him if he really thought the mason bees would ever surpass the honey bees with orchard pollination. He said that "he wasn't sure, but that the bees ability would get known, slowly but surely. Farmers change their practices at the speed of a glacier." I began my second career, one that is much more green and more beneficial to the world. From that encouragement on, it's been one big step at a time. Build a website. Start creating products that could be sold in nurseries. Found the professional Orchard Bee Association. Rebuild the website. Hire someone to work in my garage. Move into an office and warehouse with more people. Bring on more awesome and passionate employees. Rebuild the website again... When will I say that we've made it in changing the world? I think not in my lifetime. We have many years to go to introduce sustainability to the backyards and farmers of the world. We have billions of mason bees worldwide to raise. Placing the right bee on the right crop is a world statement that must be heard. Mason bees and other solitary bees are vital to our food production.
