Native Bees: Our Unsung Heroes
 by Demarus Tevuk Sandlin • Woodinville, WA

The European honey bee is well-known and popular, so popular that they get their own rallying cry of “Save the Bees”. While pesticides, diseases, climate change, and habitat loss are all harming honey bees, our native bees are also suffering. And because they are unknown, native bees are facing extinction.

When most people hear the word “bee” they think of yellow and black stripes, hives and honey, and social colonies. But the world is home to more than just honey bees and bumblebees. When I teach a workshop on raising our native bees, I like to watch my audience’s jaws drop as they learn that more than 90% of the world’s 21,000+ bee species are not actually living in a social structure.

North America is home to about 4,000 native bee species and most of these bees are living a solitary, not a social lifestyle. With solitary bees, each individual bee is fertile and the females have to do all the work to raise their young. Most bee species have a short adult life span and are only flying for about 4-6 weeks. During this short time, the solitary female bees have to gather nectar and pollen, build in some nest protection, and lay eggs.

Short on time and having to do all the work means that solitary female bees tend to be even gentler and better pollinators than social bees. The only time a female solitary bee will sting is as a last resort and they never swarm attack. Solitary bees can’t spend their precious time flying long distances so they stick close to home and only forage about 300 feet away from their nesting site. A short-range solitary bee is perfect for pollinating organic farms.

Instead of making honey, solitary bees gather nectar and pollen and combine it into what I like to call a pollen loaf. The pollen provides protein, some fat and vitamins, and the nectar provides carbohydrates. Each egg is given a pollen loaf that is just the right size to feed the egg to adulthood.

Solitary bees tend to carry pollen dry and loose on their hairy bodies and they have the freedom to visit flowers as they see fit. Bees are amazing creatures that are able to tell if a bloom is ready to be called on again and native bees are excellent cross pollinators. Dry, loose pollen falls off easily at each flower and solitary bees are at least 100 times more effective pollinators than honey bees. I have a feeling that the economic value of native bees is severely underestimated.

So, where do native bees live? About 75% of bee species nest underground and the mining bees that dig their own nests are remarkably strong. Unfortunately, rearing ground-nesting bees is nearly impossible and we can’t easily move them to our farms. But we can learn how to raise the 25% of bees that nest in above ground holes. We can raise hole-nesting bees by providing their preferred nesting holes, harvesting (or removing) bee cocoons from the holes at the right time, and moving the cocoons to a nearby farm.

Raising native bees is an important first step towards a more sustainable agricultural system. As we’ve seen from colony collapse disorder, relying on only one bee species is risky. We should diversify our bee portfolio by turning to our native bees who are better acclimated to our plants and our landscapes.

My favorite native hole-nesting bee species is the spring mason bee, a dark blue bee whose scientific name is Osmia lignaria. They fly in the spring and are perfect pollinators of fruit and nut trees and berry patches. I’ve seen people double or triple their fruit yield and even my poor old apple tree grew huge apples after I started raising mason bees.

I love to hold mason bees in my hand as they chew their way out of their silky, waterproof cocoons. I was scared the first time but I quickly realized that holding a mason bee is like holding a ladybug. Both insects poop on you to lighten up before flying away.

Only through raising mason bees did I get to know what bees need and I started to look at my yard a little differently. Now I take the time to notice the very small bees on my weeds, weeds that I am no longer fighting to remove. I remind people that to a bee, the yard is their entire home and chemical-free flowers can be an oasis.

Early in 2016, the UN announced that their meta study showed that nearly 40% of the world’s insect pollinators are facing extinction. There are plenty of beekeepers working hard to maintain honey bee populations but there is no such effort for native bees. It’s time to give native bees the spotlight they deserve and interpret “Save the Bees” as inclusive of our unsung native bees.

Demarus Tevuk Sandlin leads Environmental Programs at Crown Bees, a native bee supply company in Woodinville, WA. To learn more about native holenesting bees, visit CrownBees.com and sign up for their bi-weekly BeeMail newsletter. Demarus will teach you how to raise and support wild bees and grow more food for more people.