March 16, 2023 at 12:51 p.m.
Fish Like a GIRL
It was a month or two ago when Kathy Kavameier from the Lakeland Gardeners reached out to me via email to ask if I would be interested in talking with the group. Of course, I jumped at the chance. Talking to gardeners about gardening? Certainly!
There are so many things to talk about when it comes to bees. I feel as though bees are more accepted now than they have been in the past. When I was a kid, bees were considered scary. But they were not scary simply because of my age. Adults were afraid of bees, too. They sting. People are allergic. One in the house? Time to have the "big freakout".
Today, though, I believe a lot of those misconceptions are gone. Yes, bees that live in colonies may sting a person they believe to be infringing on the colony or who is close enough to do harm. And yes, some people are allergic to bee stings. But, on the whole, most of the bees in Wisconsin do not care if a human is nearby. They are just going about life, doing important bee things like pollinating and making food for us and wildlife, and they could care less that we are walking by.
One fact about native bees that I will likely never forget came courtesy of Baerbel Ehrig of the Oneida County land and water conservation department at a presentation a few years ago.
Ehrig spoke about how much more efficient native bees are at pollinating than honey bees are. She used the example of one acre of apple trees. She said it would take 15,000 to 20,000 honey bees to pollinate those trees. However, that same acre of apple trees could be pollinated by only 250 mason bees.
One of the issues with honey bees is they are not acclimated to Wisconsin' difficult climate. As I told the gardening group, I do not blame them. I was born and raised here and I sometimes feel like I am not acclimated to this climate.
I say that as I write this column in what I hope to be the last snowstorm of March.
Honey bees like warm, sunny days. I agree with them. However, It is easy to see how, especially during a rainy spring, that may mean they are less efficient than native bees. Native bees have evolved with the climate and with native plants.
That is not to say there are not dangers to native bees when it comes to climate change. Indeed, this is one of the four major threats to native bees. I have written in the past about phenological whiplash, and the issues it could potentially spawn. For those who have not read or heard much about it, as climate changes, there is a chance that the food a specific species needs will not be available at the time it needs that food. This could happen because it is starting to be shown that not all species of plants and animals respond the same to the changes that come along with climate change.
One of the things we concentrated on at the club meeting was early blooms. These can be some of the most important ones. Bees that emerge early, such as miner bees and other ground-dwellers, need early blooms. Often that comes from trees and shrubs. Pussy willows are early bloomers, but dandelions are, too, and they can provide a big benefit to those early bees.
I shared my recipe for dandelion honey with the gardening group, as well. As long as there are still dandelions left for the bees, it does not hurt to take some of them for dandelion honey, or to use some of the leaves for dandelion salad. Of course, there is also dandelion wine.
In my experience, that is more of a learned taste - at least in the wines I have had. But dandelions are a great source of a number of vitamins, so finding ways to use them, even as dandelion coffee, makes sense for humans, as well as a great early season source of food for bees.
One thing about dandelions is they tell a landowner there is a problem. While dandelions can grow in good soil, chances are if there dandelions are present there is an issue. It may be that the soil is acidic. The soil may be missing calcium. Or, as it seems to be most often in the dandelions I find, the soil is compacted.
What is interesting about dandelions is that they can work to correct some of the issues they find in the soil. Their long tap root can bring up calcium from deeper in the soil. The growth of these "weeds," too, can work to make soil less compacted. However, more often than not, it is on the landowner to use an aerator or some device to loosen compacted soil.
We finished my part of the evening talking about these nutritious "weeds," and it was fun to talk with people about the good attributes of dandelions.
For anyone looking for something to do before the weather breaks into spring for good, I would recommend checking out some food videos about dandelions. There are some great ones on YouTube. Just be aware, it may take a person down a rabbit hole.
To be honest, though, it is not the worst use of time.
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