News — Solitary Bees

Growing food in your own backyard is an excellent way to reduce stress, save money, lower pollution, and improve your community’s food security Working with soil has also been shown to reduce depression and enhance your mental health while you learn new skills. Gardening with children is full of opportunities to learn about many subjects like ecology, biology, chemistry, and art. Our goal is to cover the key decisions in the planning process to make building your own victory garden easy for new gardeners. Remember to relax and experiment as you learn what works best for you.   Garden Site Conditions Start...

Crown Bees cares about sharing what we learn about solitary bees. For that reason, the founder and owner of Crown Bees is readily available to national podcasters, news and video production crews, researchers and authors. Recently the video producers at One Tree Planted conducted an interview with Dave Hunter, owner of Crown Bees, at Oxbow Farm and Conservation Center in Washington State. One Tree Planted is an environmental charity "dedicated to making it easier for individuals and businesses to give back to the environment, fight climate change, protect biodiversity and help reforestation efforts around the world. All by planting trees!"   During the interview,...

Dr. Jason Graham is the lead researcher developing conservation for the endangered Hawaiian yellow-faced bees in the Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences Department at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. Seven species of Hawaii's yellow-faced bees were placed on the endangered species list in October 2016, these are the first species of bees to be protected and labeled as endangered. Dr. Graham has designed and is testing an artificial nest system that has helped him to study the ecology, development and nest architecture of the Hawaiian yellow-faced bees. Collaborating with State and Federal agencies as well as local community and school groups, Dr....

As a new Crown Bees employee, one of the first organizations I connected with was the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, which oversees the P-Patch Community Garden Program. As part of a group project in college, I learned that P-Patch community gardens provide a vital space to grow culturally significant food not easily found in grocery aisles. I wanted the P-Patch gardens to be aware that they qualify for our Community Garden program which provides public and educational gardens with the pollination they need while teaching the public about our native hole-nesting bees.   Bonnie Hedman has been the lead gardener at the UpGarden,...