Blog
Read This Before You Buy Bees
The solitary bee industry is taking off, which attracts companies with the sole purpose of making money. We helped start the industry back in 2008 and see both good and bad practices abound! Your success is honestly important to us, and we want to give you the tools to make informed decisions.A growing industry, while popular, can often breed problems. Perhaps the biggest problem facing the solitary bee industry is the boom of uninformed people/companies selling bees and products. Did you know t
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Jan 31st 2022
Bee Informed: Another Win for Pollinators, Air Pollution Impairs Bees Ability to Smell Flowers, and To Plant or To Let it Grow
Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability.1. New Jersey Enacts Groundbreaking Neonic Legislation(NRDC) New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law A2070 (Calabrese)/S1016 (Smith), which prohibits most outdoor non-agricultural uses of harmful neonicotinoid pesticides. An outpouring of scientific evidence points to neonics as a leading cause of bee losses; a threat to birds, other wi
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Jan 27th 2022
A Year in Review — 2021 Highlights
As winter settles in with the bees nestled safely in their nesting materials, we wanted to take this time to fill you in on our top 5 highlights from 2021!1. Another Successful Bee Buy Back SeasonA big THANK YOU to all of our Bee Farmers, Bee Buy Back Participants, and Harvesting Volunteers this season! We've harvested, inspected for pests and disease, and cleaned over 300,000 mason bee cocoons from all across the country. That's enough to pollinate over 16,000 gardens in 2022! The bees are now
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Nov 22nd 2021
Climate Change: It's Bad for Bees
Global climate change already has observable effects on the environment. Glaciers have melted, extreme weather is more frequent and intense, plant and animal ranges have shifted, and plants are blooming earlier.
Figuring out how something as complex as climate change affects bee populations is challenging but not impossible. Recent research has found that climate change affects our pollinators on a physiological level and alters phenology. Since animal pollinators, especially bees, are cru
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Jul 29th 2021
Bee Informed: Saving America's Pollinators Act, Immunity to Pesticides, and Influx of Honey Bees
Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability.1. Support Saving America's Pollinators Act!
During Pollinator Week 2021 in June, U.S. Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Jim McGovern (D-MA) reintroduced Saving America’s Pollinators Act (SAPA) to reverse ongoing declines in wild and managed pollinators. The bill suspends the use of neonicotinoid (neonic) insecticides and other
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Jul 22nd 2021