PSM needs to raise $8,000 quickly to support BeeSWeek 2013.

BeeSWeek 2013, is a two day Scientific and Community Panel Forums at the University of New Mexico.  It is an event packed with two key note speakers (Paul Wheaton, founder of permies.com and Valerie Solheim, honey bees in high energy zones) and four separate panels that will investigate:

1. State of the BeeS address:  The current situation of our available pollinators used today in North American crops
2. An analysis of four bee industries:  Lessons and experiences of currently managed types of bees
3. A discussion of today’s practices from the perspectives of the farmer and the pollinating contractor:  The farmer’s usage of chemicals, their available expertise, and known, potential, and sustainable alternatives
4. BeeGAP (Gardeners Adding Pollinators) as a keystone home garden solution:  A grassroots, collaborative effort teaching gardeners to create healthy yards, natural bee habitats, raise solitary bees to assist the farmer in crop pollination, and ultimately assist in wholesome food production

Here is Alisha’s, the founder of PSM, request:

Good Day, family, friends, colleagues, and fine acquaintances.

As you may know, the trajectory of my personal life changed in the Spring of 2011, when, I saw bees die before my eyes on several difference occasions.  After three separate incidences, I could not ignore what I was seeing.  I was curious as to what was going on with the dying bees.  And, the more I learned about the planet’s rapidly dying food pollinators, the more I became vested in actively working to be part of the solution.

“The Honey bee is failing and will impact our food supply.  

Education on why is important, but producing and practicing solutions are even more so.”
+Alisha Bee

Last October 2012, with the support of my friends, neighbors, and colleagues, I stopped my “regular life” and followed my heart; launching the Pollinator Support Movement (PSM) collective.

The mission of Pollinator Support Movement (PSM) is to save and restore bees and the food supply chain.

• PSM is a collective of action-oriented humans that possess the personal interest, expertise, experience, and compassionate nature necessary to changing the trajectory of the actual and current conditions of the food supply chain.
• PSM is changing the culture of how humanity works together in the midst of declining global bee populations from mites, disease, chemicals, and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), and may be described as a global network collective guided by peaceful standards of conduct and functional behavioral practices.
• PSM is focused on the discovery of actual and current conditions of the food supply chain, and is committed to educating and enabling humans to act quickly in order to prevent  famine in North America and beyond.
• PSM is providing solutions, and free, ongoing support to all who are currently, or may become affected by the failing food supply chain.
• PSM is a long-term, global, solidarity-in-action project that is a work-in-progress.  The project will come to conclusion once there are enough bees to meet the needs of human food demand.

Opportunity Cost to begin saving and restoring the food supply chain:  $8,000 by June 1

While on a quest to quickly grow PSM, I am fortunate to be working alongside Dave Hunter of Crown Bees (Washington state).  Together, and with the kind invitation of Albuquerque Film & Media Experience to plug our message into their media platform, Dave and I are co-producing BeeSWeek 2013, from June 3-9 (during the film festival).  Dave is an expert in Mason bees, and is the producer of our Nation’s ONLY known solution to augment Honey bee losses; the BeeGAP solitary bee growing method.

The highlight of BeeSWeek, for PSM, is the inaugural “BeeSWeek 2013: Scientific and Community Panel Forums”.  BeeSWeek is a comprehensive conversation template that will create immediate positive cultural shift and increase our bee-growing capabilities.  BeeGAP will nationally launch on June 4, 2013, during the BeeSWeek conferences.  (Note: Solitary bees are “stingless” and efficient in orchards.  A single (1) Mason bee can produce 11+ pounds of cherries!)

In actuality, the BeeSWeek panel forums are collaborative conversations that are the first-ever of their kind, scope, and potential positive impact for our Nation.  Pollinator Support Movement, representative of our collective humanity, needs your help to fund the $8,000 inaugural “BeeSWeek 2013: Scientific and Community Panel Forums” to be conducted and professionally moderated on June 3 and 4, at the University of New Mexico.

Over 2-days and 12 hours, with formally structured conversations and keynote presentations, PSM will sponsor the public distribution of information about the actual condition of our farms and gardens, and what we can do to improve.  Toxic practices, and the potential decrease in quality of diet due to the failing Honey bees will be discussed, in hopes that we can prevent a rapid rise in food costs by providing alternate solutions.

Click here to view the BeeSWeek panel discussion guide, and to read about our esteemed panelists.
The reality of our current situation is that your $10 or $25 contribution is needed in order to help PSM to help the Nation.

Pollinator Support Movement is simultaneously holding a Membership Drive and BeeSWeek Ticket Sales Drive in order to promptly raise funds to cover hard costs for this important BeeSWeek humanitarian-pollinator conference.  The PSM Membership Drive is being sponsored by Dave Hunter’s Washington state-based Mason bee pollinator production company, Crown Bees.

1. Personal Annual Memberships are $10.
2. Professional Annual Memberships are $25.

At this moment in time, every opportunity for public support of this cause greatly matters.

Perhaps instead of purchasing 2-5 beverages, or having 1-3 meals out on the town, please consider visiting the Crown Bees website now to purchase your valuable PSM Membership.  And, while you are online at crownbees.com, please read more about how easy it is to help grow gentle, native solitary pollinating bees, and how to house them.

WHERE WILL THE MONEY GO?

There is so much good work to be done, and the growing collective behind Pollinator Support Movement is here to DO that work!  Help the collective that is saving and restoring bees and the food supply chain.

Your financial contribution (the cost of your PSM Membership or BeeSWeek ticket purchase) will directly pay for June’s event production hard costs, the PSM official non-profit status filing fees, and daily business development and expansion costs.

Give and Receive!  Contribute your $10 or $25 financial support to Pollinator Support Movement to help cover the costs of the vital BeeSWeek conference, and your annual membership includes:

1. Your membership name in online print listings.  And, if purchased before June 2, 2012, your name read aloud at the historic “BeeSWeek 2013: Scientific and Community Panel Forums“
2. A link to view the recorded 2-day ”BeeSWeek 2013: Scientific and Community Panel Forums” conference ($36 value)
3. Official PSM Membership stickers and “Thank You” original commemorative art postcard mailed to your address ($3-8 value)
4. Receive online PSM membership badges for your social media usage
5. A subscription to Bee-Mail, which includes free monthly bees educational support

BeeSWeek 2013 vital panel discussions in Albuquerque, at University of New Mexico: INEXPENSIVE TICKETS ON SALE NOW 

If you are in or near New Mexico, or know someone that is, attend the BeeSWeek Scientific and Community Panel Forums events!  Tickets are very inexpensive, at $18 (GA) and $25 (Reserved).  We have nationally and internationally-known panelists that BEE-lieve in our work, who will be participating during the BeeSWeek conference.  This conference is a first-of-its-kind, and is actually historic in nature.

Click here to view the BeeSWeek panel discussion guide, and to read about our esteemed panelists.

TO PURCHASE BEESWEEK PANEL FORUMS TICKETS: http://deadbees.wordpress.com/panel-forum-events-tickets/

As a closing aside, today I appeared on set at “The Morning Brew” — a local Albuquerque talk show — to discuss the bees, PSM’s $8,000 BeeSWeek fundraising needs, and the upcoming Albuquerque Film & Media Experience.  The episode will air on Monday, Memorial Day.  Featuring the Honey bees of Albuquerque beekeeping legend, Tomas Urrea, the video of the segment will be posted at the PSM Facebook page, likely on Wednesday, May 29.  I sincerely hope that more television and radio stations, bloggers, and influential writers see the value in banding with Pollinator Support Movement to save and restore bees and the food supply chain.

Thank You for reading, and if you have about 10 minutes to read a little more, please read this  newsletter which talks about all-things-BeeSWeek and Pollinator Support Movement.

Yours in food and quality of life,

Alisha “Bee” Forrester Scott  (978) 254-7428

Founder/Producer, Pollinator Support Movement and Alisha’s Blog

Designer/Producer, “BeeS Week” June 3-9, 2013, hosted by Albuquerque Film & Media Experience (AFME) at Nob Hill

From multiple sources, we find that Colony Collapse Disorder is far down the list of current honey bee challenges.

This list of what impacts honey bees include:

• The varroa mite, a pest that sucks the life from developing bees within the honeycomb.  They also spread diseases.  Treating an insect within an insect’s home isn’t easy.
• Small hive beetles (more SE states) will shut down a hive due their destruction of honeycomb and bee brood
• Chemicals, particularly pesticides, play a major role in honey bee death
• Diseases & virus, like the Israel Acute Paralysis Virus, Nosema, foulbrood, and others cause significant losses
• Poor nutrition, from feeding the bees a monoculture diet that causes bees to be malnourished and stressed.  This has them more susceptible to the above maladies. Spreading out bee hives for better nutrition is costly to contractors.
• Colony Collapse Disorder, a situation where the honey bee hive quickly collapses leaving few bees behind.

It’s not easy being a honey bee in a commercial honey bee hive.  The honey bee keeper has to be profitable and move his/her bees from blooming orchard to flowering crop throughout the vast pollination season.  This provides additional stress to the bees, plus contact with other diseased hives.

All of this above is bad news.  It is what the listeners want to hear and easy to report.  What’s missing from Mark’s article are potential solutions.

There are other means of pollination than the wonderful honey bee.

• In the spring, orchards can be pollinated with mason bees
• In poly-culture farms (farms where there are more crops planted than just one), wild bees have a chance to survive to pollinate as there is available food for longer periods of time.
• In organic farms, there are less chemicals, again providing healthy foraging for wild bees
• There are manageable bees yet to be “found” and managed.  Most funding heads towards “save the honey bee”.  Few dollars go towards finding alternate solutions.  Why? Again, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.  There are few that support alternate solutions and honey bee are the only “known” solution today.

What does it take to help our media focus on solutions rather than bad news?  

Potentially action from you, the reader of this article.

• Consider reading about BeeGAP (Bee Gardener Adding Pollinators).  The BeeGAP program has your bees shifted to nearby orchards.
• Learn that not all bees sting, and that there are 4,000 species of bees in North America alone.
• Understand how easy it is to raise gentle mason bees (Under $50 to get started and about two hours of work per year.)
• Leave portions of your yard untouched for ground nesting bees
• Use no chemicals in your yard.  There are alternate solutions.  Read.  Ask your local nursery.
• Consider purchasing “blemished” fruit from farmers.  Farmers use chemicals to ensure you will buy pretty looking fruit.
• Sign up for Bee-Mail so that we can track who you are.  We’ll have messages for you throughout the year to help you gain success.
• Spread the word.

Too often, we find the gardener has fallen victim to uniformed makers of mason bee homes, or they’ve chosen the easy route… a drill bit and a chunk of wood.

If you can’t hold the mason bee cocoons in your hands in the fall, you’re going to steadily lose mason bees until few survive.

What’s going on?

Pollen mites are a natural lover of pollen.  As our bees travel from flower to flower gathering the pollen, the mites are picked up in the pollen and carried along as well.  They are deposited with the pollen into the nesting holes.  The female lays her egg and seals that chamber.  It’s now a race… do the pollen mites eat the pollen before the mason bee larva, or does the larva win and develops into a bee?

In unharvested holes, the emerging spring mason bees have to “swim” through the mites and are covered head to toe with them.  In general, the bees are able to get most of the mites off.  However, they are doing so in your flowers, which help spawn even more mites to be carried back to the holes.

The old hole with the pollen mites has been cleaned by a new “owner” but she’s unable to get all of the mites out.  As she brings in fresh pollen (with mites), she’s creating a worse situation.  In this second year hole, more chambers will succumb to pollen mites.  In a 2-3 years, the hole never opens again do there being only pollen mites behind the mud plug.

If you are looking to increase the production of your bees, please DO harvest your cocoons.  Do NOT buy drilled blocks of wood, no matter how beautiful they look.

An option is to place inserts into each drilled hole. As long as you are pulling these inserts out and harvesting them in the fall, you’re on the path to success!

Please do us a favor and educate your friends and manufacturers.  We need every bee to count!  Your orchards will thank you for your extra bees!

His opinion is that there should be a GREAT difference as the mid-west typically had few, and thus both species, west and east should be naturally very different.

What’s going on?

In our opinion, peers of ours have been wrongly sending western bees east.  They’re still doing it today.  It’s bad for the customer as they’re receiving bees that won’t perform well.  It’s bad for the shipped bees as they won’t perform well.

More importantly, it’s very bad for the eastern bee that is being replaced by their western cousins.  The geneticist reaffirmed what we’ve heard for years.  Species carry unknown pathogens that can and will decimate bees that aren’t accustom to what the foreign bees are carrying.

DO NOT BUY BEES FROM THE WEST FOR EASTERN STATES.  Please.  You’re only encouraging our peers and impacting your local bees if any are left.

We are helping him track down true eastern blue orchards and will work to produce more of these as possible.  It will be a tough chore.

Orchards and crops need bees for pollination.  The honey bee, a wonderful pollinator, is having issues and will need to be augmented with additional pollinators soon.

Today, the orchard manager is only focused on honey bees due to the strength and depth of the honey bee industry.

The farmer doesn’t realize the value of the solitary mason bee yet. 100 mason bees can produce the cherries in this lower photo.  It takes about 560 honey bees to produce the same amount.

The power of your backyard is amazing.  Many gardeners raise hundreds of these bees without realizing their worth.  We need these bees in your nearby orchards!

The honey bee is facing continual losses.  We either watch this continue, or look to provide alternative solutions.  Providing mason bees and other solitary bees for crops is one thing you can do to offset this challenge.

BeeGAP is an alternate solution with a long term vision to helping our crops achieve pollination.  Your role, today, is vital.

Carole Sevilla Brown interviewed Dave Hunter on May 6, 2013 regarding BeeGAP.  Carole asked some great questions!  Listen to that podcast here on Carole’s blog post.

We’ve thought this through carefully.  It is simple in concept…

• The gardener learns to successfully raises solitary bees for their yard and winds up with too many bees.
• These excess bees are consolidated with other local gardener’s excess cocoons.
• The bees are then used wisely in regional orchards/crops.

Let’s go a bit deeper:

• We’ve already reached you.  We’re trying to reach others through blogs, magazine articles, FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.  These bees are gentle, easy to raise, and are needed for our future food supply.
• Crown Bees has a lot of information in our website to teach you how to succeed raising mason bees. It’s free, and designed to help you be successful.  We update it regularly!
• Bee-Mail is our means to connect with you today.  Later, we’ll help implement a program called “Bee University” that will help you think through your yard, your bees, and your individual successes.
• Be successful with raising your bees.
• Share your bees with friends, family, and neighbors.  Help them learn and get connected.
• Team with us in the Bee Buy Back program.  Today, we’ll exchange nesting material or other products for your cocoons.  We also buy your bees back from you if necessary.

That’s the easy part.  Here’s where, today (2013), it gets a LOT tougher.

• Today, orchard managers predominantly know how to pollinate with honey bees.  Bees are typically rented and brought in for two weeks.  Farmers spray fungicides and pesticides before and after the honey bees are introduced for pollination.  They may even have to sparay during their presence if necessary.
• Wild flowers are mowed down due to their potential conflict with pollinating blooms.  In many fields, dirt floors are preferred.

Research is needed to properly use solitary mason bees in orchards.

• What spacing should the nesting material be placed in each acre/hectare?
• Where is there adequate mud?
• How should the bees be released?
• Who owns the bees, the farmer or the bee manager?
• Who’s providing consultation to the orchard manager?
• How does one handle bees that will be in place for six weeks when there’s only two weeks of bloom?
• How does one spray a crop when mason bees are spaced throughout the trees?
• What chemicals can be used near/on mason bees? Different chemicals kill different bees.
• Who handles the bees after they are all dead and there are just eggs now?

Crown Bees and other members of BeeGAP will not just give mason bees to orchard managers.  We will insist upon proper consultation so that the bees are used wisely in their fields.  We need EVERY bee to live and provide eggs for the next generation.  If an orchard manager kills the bees due to ignorance, he/she may very likely say the bees aren’t worthwhile and tell their peers and neighbors.  We can’t have this.

We’ll be teaming with peers of ours in Orchard Bee Association to ensure that what we present to the orchard manager is sound data.