Bees: Not to be taken for granted.

Photo by Jerry apps

As a farm kid, I took bees for granted. I knew not to tangle with a hornets’ nest, or a paper wasp’s special paper-like construction or a bumble bee’s nest. I learned that if I stayed away from their nests, the bees didn’t bother me much. One of my uncles had beehives and I came to like honey, especially during World War II when sugar was rationed. He would give us some comb honey; I really liked it smeared on a thick slice of home-made bread. I didn’t think of honey bees, in the same way, I thought of other bees—and they were different of course.

At the time, I didn’t know how important bees were to farmers, especially for our gardens and fruit. Bees do heavy-duty pollination. Without them we’d have few apples or cranberries, just to give a couple of examples.

I recently read an article with the headline, “The Bee is declared the Most Important Living Being On the Planet.” That that may be pushing it a little. But I got the point. The article went on to say that “the pollination that the bees make allows the plants to reproduce, of which millions of animals feed.”

And here’s the bottom-line. Bees are disappearing. To add a personal experience. For the past five years, I’ve had a steady decrease in the number of pumpkins and squash I grow in my garden. I plant the same amount of seed, the plants come up and look good. They form blossoms—but no pumpkins and squash. I see few bees in my garden.
THE OLD-TIMER ASKS: What can we do to increase the bee population?

UPCOMING EVENTS:

October 12 (Saturday) 1:00 p.m., Fox Cities Book Festival, Menasha Public Library. CCC

October 22, (Tuesday) 6;30 Sun Prairie Public Library, Sun Prairie, WI CCC History

October 24, (Thursday) 1:00 p.m. Friends of Muehl Public Library and Outagamie County Home and Community Education Assoc. Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 349 N. Main St. , Seymour, WI “Rural Wit and Wisdom”

November 9, (Saturday) 9:00 a.m. 2nd Sat. Plymouth Art Center, Plymouth, WI. Sheboygan County Historical Research Center. “Farm Winter With Jerry Apps."

November 14, (Thursday) 6:00 p.m. Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose. "The Land Still Lives" launch.

November 18, 1:00 p.m. Kiel Public Library, Kiel, WI. “Wisconsin. CCC”

To learn more about my gardening efforts, pick up a copy of my book, Garden Wisdom, Wisconsin Historical Society Press.

Available for purchase from your local bookstore or buy them from the Friends of the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose—a fundraiser for them. Phone: 920-622-3835 for prices and ordering.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.
www.wildroselibrary.org